Scheimpflug lens densitometry and ocular wavefront aberrations in patients with mild nuclear cataract.

PURPOSE To test correlations between Scheimpflug optical densitometry and ocular higher-order aberrations (HOAs) in patients with mild nuclear cataract. SETTING Cornea and Refractive Surgery Department, Hospital de Braga, Braga, Portugal. DESIGN Retrospective single-center study. METHODS In eyes with mild nuclear cataract, lens densitometry was evaluated by Scheimpflug imaging (Pentacam HR), which provided an objective quantification (mean density and maximum density) and grading (nuclear staging score) of the crystalline lens. A visual function analyzer that combines ray-tracing aberrometry and Placido disk-based topography (iTrace) was used to evaluate the total ocular and internal HOAs. RESULTS The study comprised 40 eyes of 30 patients. The mean density of the lens nucleus was 8.99% ± 0.76% (SD) (range 7.5% to 10.8%), and the mean maximum density was 27.96% ± 6.97% (range 16.9% to 56.1%). Regarding the score of nuclear staging of the Scheimpflug device, 28 eyes had level 0 and 12 eyes had level 1. Significant positive correlations were found between the mean density and maximum density parameters and the internal HOAs (ρ = 0.661, P < .001 and ρ = 0.570, P < .001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS There were significant correlations between the quantification parameters derived from Scheimpflug lens densitometry and ocular HOAs. The integration of these technologies can help in clinical decision making and in understanding the subjective symptoms of patients with mild nuclear cataracts. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE Dr. Ambrósio is a consultant to Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH, Alcon Surgical, Inc., and Carl Zeiss Meditec AG. None of the other authors has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.