الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Confocal microscopy is a new technology with clinical applications in ophthalmology. Although confocal microscopy has been used in other fields of medicine, the optical transparency of the cornea and other structures of the eye provide a unique opportunity to apply this technology.
Confocal microscopy of ocular tissue provides two advantages over traditional imaging techniques: increased range and transverse resolution and increased contrast. The semitransparent cornea in the living eye can be optically sectioned and observed by reflected light confocal microscopy. Within the cornea we observed various cell components nerve fibers nerve cell bodies and fibrous networks.
Confocal microscopy allows ophthalmic clinicians and re-searchers to visualise living tissues at greatly increased resolutions. Qualitative observations of the images obtained are rapidly giving way to sophisticated quantitative image analysis systems. So far, confocal microscopy has been used to better characterise the often rare corneal degenerations and dystrophies, Abnormalities at the cellular level have been detected throughout the full thickness of the cornea, as an aid in keratopathies and identification of the causative organism in cases of infective keratitis, to research the wound healing characteristics of the human cornea following penetrating keratoplasties and refractive surgery procedures, and to study the effects of contact lens wear.