A novel quantitative methodology for age evaluation of the human corneal endothelium

The human corneal endothelium regulates the cornea transparency. Its cells, that cannot regenerate after birth, form a tesselated mosaic with almost perfect hexagonal cells during childhood, becoming progressively bigger and less ordered during aging. This study included 50 patients (in 10 decades groups) and 10 specular microscopy observations per patient. Five different criteria were measured on the manually segmented cells: area and perimeter of the cells as well as reduced Minkowski functionals. All these criteria were used to assess the probability of age group membership. We demonstrated that the age evaluation is near the reality, although a high variability was observed for patients between 30 and 70 years old.