title: Optical coherence tomography in patients undergoing cataract surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the ability of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to diagnose macular changes pre- and post-cataract surgery and to identify changes in central foveal thickness (CFT) relative to age, sex, and presence of concomitant ophthalmic pathologies, for a period of 6 months post-surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective study of patients evaluated by SD-OCT within 5 h before surgery at 7, 30, 60, 90, and 180 days post-op, with respect to CFT and presence of maculopathy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety-eight eyes of 98 patients were evaluated, with the following mean results: age = 71.4 years, pre-op VA = 0.27 logMAR, and final VA = 0.73 logMAR. There were 21 eyes in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and 10 eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), three with epiretinal membrane, and four with glaucoma. Sixty eyes had no other ophthalmic-related pathologies (NOO), and had a mean pre-op CFT of 222 μm, which progressively increased up to the 60th day post-op, reaching a mean of 227.2 μm. No pseudophakic cystoid macular edema was observed. The mean CFT was statistically significantly different (p<0.001) between NOO and diabetic patients from 30 days post-op. Four eyes presented with preoperative diagnosis of AMD as measured by ophthalmoscopy. After completion of the OCT, which was performed within 5 h before surgery, six additional patients were found to have AMD. Of the 98 total eyes, 10 were diagnosed with maculopathy only by OCT exam. Binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy (BIO) was unable to detect such changes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  OCT diagnosed preoperative maculopathies in 21.4% of the patients, and was more effective than BIO (11.2%). OCT showed a progressive increase in CFT in diabetics up to 180 days post-operatively, as well as greater CFT in male patients and patients older than 70 years.
authors.affiliation: Hospital de Olhos do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, BR.
authors.forename: Carlos Augusto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Moreira Neto
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, BR.
authors.forename: Carlos Augusto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Moreira Júnior
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, BR.
authors.forename: Ana Tereza Ramos
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Moreira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014792:Visual Acuity