title: Predicting postoperative visual outcomes in cataract patients with maculopathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the accuracy of the potential acuity meter (PAM) in predicting postcataract surgery visual acuity outcome in patients with healed inactive maculopathies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective interventional clinical trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients scheduled for phacoemulsification had preoperative and 1 month postoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), PAM test, fluorescein angiography, and macular optical coherence tomography. Patients were grouped to following preoperative BCVA: PRE1: 0.29 and better, PRE2: 0.25-0.13, and PRE3: 0.1 or worse; age: G1 <60, G2 = 60-70, and G3 >70 years. PAM accuracy was divided into: Grade 1: Postoperative BCVA ≤1 or less line error of the PAM score, Grade 2: Between 1 and 2 lines error, and Grade 3: ≥3 lines or more error.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study enrolled 57 patients with a mean age of 71.05 ± 6.78 years where 34 were females. There were 21 (36.84%) patients with diabetic maculopathy and 36 (63.16%) with age-related macular degeneration. The mean preoperative BCVA was 0.198 ± 0.12 (0.1-0.5). The mean PAM score was 0.442 ± 0.24 (0.1-1.3). The mean postoperative BCVA was 0.4352 ± 0.19 (0.17-1.00). The PAM score was in Grade 1, 2, and 3 in 46 (80.7%), 54 (94.7%), and 56 (98.2), respectively. There was a highly significant correlation between the PAM score and the postoperative BCVA (P < 0.001, Chi-square test). There was no correlation between the PAM test accuracy and age, gender, diagnosis, and preoperative BCVA (P = 0.661, 0.667, 0. 0.991, 0.833, Chi-square test; respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PAM is an accurate method of predicting postoperative visual acuity for eyes with nuclear cataracts Grade I and II and inactive maculopathies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Kasr El Aini Hospital, Cairo University, El-Manial, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Tamer A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Macky
authors.forename: Abdel Moniem Hasaballah
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: Ahmed M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Emarah
authors.forename: Amr Abdellatif
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Osman
authors.forename: Ahmed S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Gado
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002386:Cataract / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D019654:Lens Implantation, Intraocular; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018918:Phacoemulsification; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019591:Pseudophakia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*