Influence of cataract on optical coherence tomography image quality and retinal thickness

BACKGROUND: As optical coherence tomography (OCT) is widely used for diagnosis and monitoring of ocular pathology, especially in the elderly people, the influence of cataract on image quality and macular retinal thickness was studied. METHODS: In 29 patients scheduled for cataract surgery, preoperative and postoperative OCT scans were obtained. Cataracts were categorised as nuclear, posterior or cortical. Parameters for image quality (signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)) and signal strength and macular thickness were compared. A three-level expert grading scale was used to evaluate the discriminative abilities of SNR and signal strength. RESULTS: Nuclear cataracts (n = 12) provided better preoperative scans (higher SNR/signal strength) than posterior (n = 7) and cortical (n = 10) cataracts (p <0.004). Postoperatively SNR and signal strength increased significantly in all patients (p