IngentaConnect Lower nasal distribution of cortical cataract: the Blue Mountains...

Authors: Rochtchina, Elena¹; Mitchell, Paul¹; Coroneo, Minas¹; Wang, Jie Jin¹; Cumming, Robert G²

Source: Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology, Volume 29, Number 3, June 2001 , pp. 111-115(5)

Abstract:

Previous reports have indicated that cortical cataract commences in the lower nasal lens, possibly due to sunlight exposure because of the shallow brow temporally. The present study aimed to assess the lens sector distribution of cortical cataract in a population. The Blue Mountains Eye Study assessed 3654 residents aged 49-97years; 3270 phakic subjects had retroillumination lens photographs graded using the Wisconsin method, which divides the lens into eight radial sectors with a grid overlay. Graders estimated percentage of cortical opacity in each sector. The lower nasal area consistently had the greatest opacity, a pattern present at each age and similar in both sexes, despite the 20% greater cortical cataract in women. The mean area of lens cortex involved by opacities in the lower nasal hemisphere was four fold greater than in the upper temporal hemisphere at each age. The lower nasal distribution was highly symmetrical when both eyes were affected. When > 20% of the lower nasal lens quadrant had cortical opacity, 88% of bilaterally affected subjects had cortical cataract in the same quadrant of the fellow eye. The lower nasal distribution may indicate a role for sunlight in the aetiology of cortical cataract, which could be considered when examining other cortical cataract risk factors, such as diabetes, vascular disease and hormonal factors in women.

Keywords: cataract grading; cortical cataract; risk factors; sunlight

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1046/j.1442-9071.2001.00413.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Ophthalmology and the Save Sight and Millennium Institutes, The University of Sydney (Westmead Hospital) and 2: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

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Lower nasal distribution of cortical cataract: the Blue Mountains Eye Study