Progression and regression of partial corneal involvement in the iridocorneal endothelial syndrome.

We have observed three women with partial corneal involvement in the ICE syndrome for over 10 years. During this time, the peripheral anterior synechiae progressed in all three, with glaucoma developing in one patient. In two patients, the abnormal endothelial cells spread to cover the entire posterior corneal surface; in the third, they disappeared entirely (ie, "the ICE melted"). The endothelial permeability to fluorescein remained abnormally low only in the two eyes with diffusely abnormal endothelium, increasing to normal in the third eye as the abnormal endothelium disappeared. The permeability in that eye had been abnormally low only in the superior half of the cornea, where the abnormal endothelium was. As the abnormal endothelium regressed, it was replaced by normal endothelium with a normal cell density similar to that of the opposite, uninvolved eye. Thus, over a 10-year period the partial endothelial involvement associated with the ICE syndrome progressed substantially in two patients and regressed dramatically in a third.