Validation of the Nuclear Cataract Grading System BCN 10.

Purpose: To evaluate a new nuclear cataract grading system which is intended as a surgical guidance system to predict lens hardness before cataract surgery.

Methods: The new BCN 10 grading system consists of frontal and cross-sectional slit-lamp images of human eye lenses, ranging from a completely transparent lens nucleus to a totally black nuclear cataract. Validation was done with 9 observers for 110 cases.

Protein profiles in cortical and nuclear regions of aged human donor lenses: A confocal Raman microspectroscopic and imaging study.

A combination of Raman spectroscopy, imaging, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and peak ratio analysis was used to analyze protein profiles in the superficial cortex (SC), deep cortex (DC) and nucleus of old human lenses with cortical, nuclear and mixed cataracts. No consistent differences were observed in protein spectra and after cluster analysis between the three locations irrespective of the presence or absence of cortical opacities and/or coloration. A sharp increase (∼15%-∼33%) in protein content from SC to DC, normal for human lenses, was found in 7 lenses.

Experimental protocols for ex vivo lens stretching tests to investigate the biomechanics of the human accommodation apparatus.

Purpose: To explore alternative experimental protocols to investigate the biomechanical behavior of the crystalline lens and zonules using ex vivo stretching.

Methods: Radial stretching tests were conducted on the anterior segment (consisting of lens, zonules, ciliary body, and sclera) of four pairs of presbyopic human donor eyes. A simple mechanical model is used to describe the behavior of the anterior segment when tested in this way.

Absence of amyloid-beta in lenses of Alzheimer patients: a confocal Raman microspectroscopic study.

We have compared the protein profiles in plaques and tangles in the hippocampus of post-mortem Alzheimer brains and in opaque and clear regions in the deep cortex of eye lenses of the same donors. From the 7 Alzheimer donors studied, 1 had pronounced bilateral cortical lens opacities, 1 moderate and 5 only minor or no cortical opacities. We focused on beta-sheet levels, a hallmarking property of amyloid-beta, the major protein of plaques and tau protein, the major protein of tangles in Alzheimer brains.

Absence of beta-amyloid in cortical cataracts of donors with and without Alzheimer's disease.

Eye lenses from human donors with and without Alzheimer's disease (AD) were studied to evaluate the presence of amyloid in cortical cataract. We obtained 39 lenses from 21 postmortem donors with AD and 15 lenses from age-matched controls provided by the Banco de Ojos para Tratamientos de la Ceguera (Barcelona, Spain). For 17 donors, AD was clinically diagnosed by general physicians and for 4 donors the AD diagnosis was neuropathologically confirmed.

Elastic properties of human lens zonules as a function of age in presbyopes.

Purpose: To investigate the elastic properties of human lens zonules as a function of age in presbyopes.

Methods: We studied 16 presbyopic human donor eyes (ages 47-97). Anterior eye sections with crystalline lens, zonules, ciliary body, and sclera were stretched radially.

Posterior capsule opacification assessment and factors that influence visual quality after posterior capsulotomy.

Purpose: To study the correlation between posterior capsule opacification (PCO) and intraocular straylight and visual acuity.

Design: Prospective noninterventional study.

Methods: We measured visual acuity (VA), logarithm of minimal angle of resolution (logMAR) and intraocular straylight (C-Quant straylight parameter log[s]) under photopic conditions before and 2 weeks after YAG capsulotomy in 41 patients (53 eyes) from the Centro de Oftalmología Barraquer in Barcelona and the University Eye Clinic, Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg.

Wedge resection for high astigmatism after penetrating keratoplasty for keratoconus: refractive and histopathologic changes.

Purpose: To analyze the refractive, topographic, keratometric changes and the histopathologic findings after wedge resection to correct high astigmatism after penetrating keratoplasty for keratoconus.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was done analyzing the following parameters preoperatively and at 1, 3, and 5 years postoperatively: uncorrected visual acuity, best-corrected visual acuity, and spherical equivalent and refractive, topographic, and keratometric cylinder measures. We also studied the efficacy and safety indices, as well as the histopathologic findings of tissues submitted for pathology.