Changes in Intraocular Straylight and Visual Acuity with Age in Cataracts of Different Morphologies

PURPOSE: To investigate the significance of difference in straylight of cataract eyes with different morphologies, as a function of age and visual acuity.

METHODS: A literature review to collect relevant papers on straylight, age, and visual acuity of three common cataract morphologies leads to including five eligible papers for the analysis. The effect of morphology was incorporated to categorize straylight dependency on the two variables. We also determined the amount of progression in a cataract group using a control group.

RESULTS: The mean straylight was 1.22 log units ± 0.20 (SD) in nuclear (592 eyes), 1.26 log units ± 0.23 in cortical (776 eyes), and 1.48 log units ± 0.34 in posterior subcapsular (75 eyes) groups. The slope of straylight-age relationship was 0.009 (R(2) = 0.20) in nuclear, 0.012 (R(2) = 0.22) in cortical, and 0.014 (R(2) = 0.11) in posterior subcapsular groups. The slope of straylight-visual acuity relationship was 0.62 (R(2) = 0.25) in nuclear, 0.33 (R(2) = 0.13) in cortical, and 1.03 (R(2) = 0.34) in posterior subcapsular groups.

CONCLUSION: Considering morphology of cataract provides a better insight in assessing visual functions of cataract eyes, in posterior subcapsular cataract, particularly, in spite of notable elevated straylight, visual acuity might not manifest severe loss.