Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Exp Med. Sep 20, 2026; 16(3): 126036
Published online Sep 20, 2026. doi: 10.5493/wjem.126036
Published online Sep 20, 2026. doi: 10.5493/wjem.126036
Corneal nerve imaging in systemic neuropathy: A minireview of experimental and precision medicine applications
Matteo Capobianco, Eye Clinic, Policlinico G Rodolico, University of Catania, Catania 95121, Italy
Matteo Capobianco, Faculty of Medicine, University of Catania, Catania 95123, Italy
Francesco Cappellani, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Enna “Kore”, Enna 94100, Italy
Francesco Cappellani, Mediterranean Foundation, “GB Morgagni”, Catania 95125, Italy
Ehimare Enaholo, Department of Ophthalmology, Centre for Sight Africa Ltd, Nkpor 434101, Nigeria
Marco Zeppieri, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Udine, Udine 33100, Italy
Marco Zeppieri, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste 34127, Italy
Co-first authors: Matteo Capobianco and Francesco Cappellani.
Author contributions: Capobianco M and Cappellani F contributed equally to this work and shared first authorship, as Capobianco M and Cappellani F made comparable and substantial contributions to the conception, research, and drafting of the manuscript; Capobianco M, Cappellani F, Enaholo E, and Zeppieri M performed the research and wrote the manuscript; Capobianco M and Cappellani F contributed to drafting and revising the manuscript; Capobianco M, Cappellani F, Enaholo E, and Zeppieri M were responsible for the conception and design of the study; Capobianco M, Cappellani F, Enaholo E, and Zeppieri M contributed to writing and critical editing of the manuscript; Zeppieri M performed language editing and critical revision of all manuscript versions; and all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
AI contribution statement: During the preparation and revision of this manuscript, ChatGPT-5.4 Sol (OpenAI) and Grammarly were used solely to assist with language editing, rephrasing, structural organization, and readability. These tools were not used to generate scientific evidence, perform analyses, determine evidence interpretation, or formulate scientific conclusions. No AI-generated images were used. All factual statements, numerical data, references, interpretations, and conclusions were independently checked and approved by the authors, who take full responsibility for the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Corresponding author: Marco Zeppieri, MD, PhD, Consultant, Postdoc, Department of Ophthal
Received: July 29, 2026
Revised: September 11, 2026
Accepted: September 17, 2026
Published online: September 20, 2026
Processing time: 59 Days and 18 Hours
Revised: September 11, 2026
Accepted: September 17, 2026
Published online: September 20, 2026
Processing time: 59 Days and 18 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Corneal confocal microscopy provides a fast, non-invasive quantitative assessment of corneal small-nerve morphology and has shown reproducible group-level abnormality in diabetic peripheral neuropathy and a few other systemic neuropathies. Nevertheless, population-based distinctions do not mean a reliable diagnosis in a single patient. Research shows that when it comes to diabetic neuropathy, the best studied condition, the variability in diagnostic performance can be attributed to the studied population, the reference standard employed, the sampling protocol used, the analysis chosen and the threshold selected. Also, there is considerable overlap and variation between those affected and not affected.