Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jul;45(7):1020-1025.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcrs.2019.01.025. Epub 2019 Apr 16.

The impact of glistenings on the optical quality of a hydrophobic acrylic intraocular lens

Jan N Weindler  1 , Grzegorz Łabuz  2 , Timur M Yildirim  1 , Tamer Tandogan  1 , Ramin Khoramnia  1 , Gerd U Auffarth  1
Affiliations

The impact of glistenings on the optical quality of a hydrophobic acrylic intraocular lens

Jan N Weindler et al. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2019 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: To study the effect of glistenings on the optical quality of a hydrophobic acrylic intraocular lens (IOL).

Setting: David J. Apple Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.

Design: An in vitro laboratory study.

Methods: An accelerated aging protocol was used to induce glistenings (microvacuoles) in 38 hydrophobic acrylic IOLs. The IOLs were warmed to 45°C and then cooled to 37°C. Image analysis of light-microcopy photographs determined the number and size of microvacuoles (MV). A classification was applied based on the glistening number per mm2: grade 0 (none), grade 1 (1-100), grade 2 (101-200), grade 3 (201-500) and grade 4 (more than 500). An optical bench was used to measure each IOL's modulation transfer function (MTF) and Strehl ratio to evaluate the impact of glistenings on image quality.

Results: Glistenings were observed in all IOLs. The mean glistening numbers ± SD (MV/mm2) in grades 1 through 4 were 74 ± 12.7, 142 ± 22.2, 297 ± 76.2, and 1509 ± 311.9, respectively. The mean glistening sizes in grades 1 through 4 were 13.28 ± 3.85 μm, 15.88 ± 2.08 μm, 16.85 ± 3.23 μm, and 15.27 ± 2.25 μm, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that grades 1 through 3 did not change the optical quality; however, in grade 4, the MTF and the Strehl ratio were significantly affected.

Conclusion: A limited number of glistenings (<500 MV/mm2) had no effect on the image quality. Although statistically significant deteriorations in the MTF and the Strehl ratio were observed in grade 4, the effects found were small and are unlikely to affect the visual quality.

PubMed Disclaimer