Fabrication of optical mosaics mimicking human corneal endothelium for the training and assessment of eye bank technicians

Abstract : The determination of endothelial cell density (ECD) is a crucial activity in eye banks for the assessment of corneal tissue quality. These cells are responsible for corneal transparency, and ECD correlates with graft survival. ECD is mainly assessed with a manual "naked-eye" procedure under a transmitted light microscope in Europe and using a specular microscope in the United States. Interbank and intrabank variability has been previously demonstrated. In order to facilitate training and continuing education of technicians and reliability assessment of eye banks' ECD determination, we use micro-optics technologies to fabricate test mosaics that exactly reproduce the image of human corneal endothelium. The description of the fabrication process is detailed, and comparisons are made between amplitude and phase mosaics.