[Scheimpflug photography of the lens]

The introduction of Scheimpflug photography of the anterior eye segment, the construction of appropriate equipment, and the development of procedures for image analysis have decisively influenced clinical and experimental research on the anterior eye segment. The most important field of application is measurement of the light-scatter in the lens from which conclusions on lens transparency can be drawn. Information on the different transparency properties in the individual lens layers was obtained for the first time by means of investigations on lens transparency in relation to age. These data permit early recognition of pathological changes in lens transparency as the data were obtained from rather large groups of patients, the classification characteristics for the localization of certain opacifications could be determined objectively and thus provide the fundamental conditions for epidemiological investigations into a possible relationship between certain risk factors and types of opacification. Due to the high reproducibility of the photographic techniques, the method was speedily accepted for long-term investigations on lens transparency, some of which were sometimes performed over a period of several years. Application of the method within the scope of drug testing is already being requested today by the authorities concerned. The procedure has also been accepted for experimental cataract research. The possibility of early detection of the processes of opacification and their respective locations in the lens can now be biochemically analyzed.