Higher-order aberrations of age-related cataract

To analyze higher-order aberrations induced by different types of lenticular opacities.

Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

One hundred thirty-eyes of 65 patients with bilateral cataract, classified according to the Lens Opacities Classification System III (LOCS III), had complete ophthalmic examinations, corneal topography (EyeSys Technologies), and wavefront analysis (LADARWave, Alcon Laboratories). Patients with cataracts that could not be measured by a Hartmann-Shack sensor or those with coexisting ocular disease were excluded. Higher-order aberrations were compared between the nuclear, cortical, and posterior subcapsular groups for statistical significance.

One hundred five eyes of 65 patients were assessed. Twenty-eight eyes (23.33%) had predominantly nuclear opacification (NO1-NO6 and C1-2), and 13 (10.83%) had mainly cortical opacification (C1-4). Sixty-four eyes (65.83%) had a mixed pattern of LOCS III classification, which hindered the establishment of a correlation between the aberrometry and cataract type. Eighteen eyes that presented with dense posterior subcapsular cataract (P4-5) and 7 eyes with cortical C5 LOCS III classification were excluded. In eyes with nuclear opacification, the mean spherical aberration with a 6.0 mm pupil was 0.45 microm +/- 0.17 (SD) and the mean coma was 0.29 +/- 0.13 microm. In eyes with predominantly cortical cataract, the mean spherical aberration was 0.12 +/- 0.10 microm and the mean coma was 0.49 +/- 0.23 microm. The cortical cataract group had statistically significantly higher coma than the other groups (P<.001). The nuclear cataract group had statistically significantly higher spherical aberrations than the other groups (P<.001).

Different types of early lenticular opacities induced different wavefront aberration profiles. Coma predominated in the cortical cataract group, and spherical aberration predominated in the nuclear cataract group.