Epidemiological and histopathological Assessment of corneal dystrophies; a decade of experience in pathology department of farabi hospital

Abstract Background: Corneal dystrophies are genetic disorders that lead to opacification of the cornea and eventually, blindness. They have been commonly cited as a major reason for keratoplasty. Histopathology, clinic and genetics form the diagnostic triangle for corneal dystrophies. Objectives: To carry out an epidemiological assessment of corneal dystrophies in Iranian patients via histopathological tools and determine frequency of the different subtypes. Methods: In a retrospective effort, pathology files of patients who had cornea transplantation between the years 2002 and 2014 at the Farabi eye hospital in Tehran, Iran were examined. Pathology samples dubbed with the diagnosis of corneal dystrophy were of interest and further processed, stained with non-specific stains and made into slides for microscopic evaluation. In addition, specific stains such as Masson’s trichrome, Alcian Blue and Congo Red were used. For proper classification of various corneal dystrophies, the IC3D classification of corneal dystrophies-edition 2 was implemented. Results: Of the 5867 cornea samples retrieved from keratoplasty surgeries, 239(4.07%) belonged to patients with corneal dystrophies (males=120[50.2%]; females=119[49.8%]). The greatest quantity of them (n=59; 24.7%) aged between 21 and 30 years. Macular corneal dystrophy (MCD) was the most frequent corneal dystrophy subtype (n=117; 49%). Other types such as lattice corneal dystrophy (n=9; 3.8%), Avellino dystrophy (n=3; 1.3%) and Schnyder corneal dystrophy (n=2; 0.8%) were also detected. Conclusions: MCD is the most common corneal dystrophy subtype witnessed in Iranian patients going through keratoplasty. Use of special stains in histopathology can avoid missing the diagnosis of particular corneal dystrophies such as Avellino dystrophy.

کلیدواژه ها:

corneal dystrophy