Primary lipid keratopathy: a morphological and biochemical assessment.

Accepted for publication 27 November 1992 Lipid keratopathy is a term applied to conditions where lipid degeneration of the cornea occurs.`-5 There are only a few cases of primary lipid keratopathy published to date,'-5 and all of them report the morphological evaluation of a corneal button by different methods; in some of these cases identification of the lipids was tentatively made histochemically.'4 To our knowledge, however, no quantitative biochemical determination of lipids has been reported in this condition. We present a case of primary lipid keratopathy diagnosed by biochemical and ultrastructural analysis of a corneal button allied to the quantitative determiination of neutral lipids in the aqueous humour, cultured skin fibroblasts, leucocytes, and blood plasma.