USE OF NON-SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS OF LENS TRANSPARENCY IN EXPERIMENTAL RADIATION CATARACT RESEARCH

Historically the major impediment to radiation cataract followup has b een the necessarily subjective nature of assessing the degree of lens transparency. This has spurred the development of instruments which pr oduce video images amenable to digital analysis. One such system, the Zeiss Scheimpflug slit lamp measuring system (SLC), was incorporated i nto our ongoing studies of radiation cataractogenesis. It was found th at the Zeiss SLC measuring system has high resolution and permits the acquisition of reproducible images of the anterior segment of the eye. Our results, based on about 650 images of lenses followed over a peri od of 91 weeks of radiation cataract development, showed that the chan ges in the light scatter of the lens correlated well with conventional assessment of radiation cataracts with the added advantages of object ivity, permanent and transportable records and linearity as cataracts become more severe. This continuous data acquisition, commencing with cataract onset, can proceed through more advanced stages. The SLC exhi bits much greater sensitivity reflected in a continuously progressive severity thereby avoiding the artifactual plateaus in staging which oc cur using conventional scoring methods.