Study of the relationship between the severity of posterior capsular opacification detected by objective detection techniques and visual acuity.

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the severity of posterior capsule opacification (PCO) using objective detection techniques and its relationship with visual acuity.

Setting: The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: All patients underwent slitlamp examination, intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement, and corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) testing before Nd:YAG laser capsulotomy, and examination, after fully dilated, with: IOLMaster 700, optical coherence tomography (OCT), Sirius Topographer (CSO) anterior segment analysis, and color fundus photography (CFP). CDVA and IOP were taken post treatment. Thickness and density of the posterior capsule, CFP quality (CFPQ) and OCT signal strength (OCTSS) were recorded. Analysis used Spearman correlation, heatmaps, and receiver operating characteristic curves.

Results: 83 eyes in 78 patients were included in this study. Spearman correlation analysis revealed correlations between pretreatment CDVA and IOLMaster 700 PCO thickness (MT), IOLMaster 700 cumulative effect (MCE), Sirius PCO thickness (ST), Sirius maximum density (SMD), Sirius cumulative effect (SCE), OCTSS, and CFPQ (correlation coefficients were 0.500, 0.484, 0.465, -0.256, 0.317, -0.442, -0.412, all P < .05). The improvement of vision acuity (ImpVA) showed correlations with MT, MCE, ST, SCE, OCTSS, and CFPQ (correlation coefficients were -0.452, -0.471, -0.346, -0.278, 0.320, 0.381, all P < .05). For ImpVA, the predictive ability of IOLMaster 700 was superior to Sirius, and the joint model was significantly better than single factors.

Conclusions: Posterior capsule thickness and cumulative effect were reliable indicators for evaluating PCO. Compared with Sirius, the IOLMaster 700 demonstrated superior predictive ability and higher correlation.