Purpose:
To evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of axial length measurements by the Eye Cubed A-scan in contact manual, contact automatic, immersion manual, and immersion automatic modes in comparison to the Sonomed 5500 A-scan in contact manual mode.
Methods:
The axial length of 30 eyes from 15 patients with cataracts was measured using 5 different techniques by a single operator: Eye Cubed A-scan in contact manual, contact automatic, immersion manual, and immersion automatic modes and Sonomed A-scan in contact manual mode. The time required to complete each technique was recorded and defined as the time from initial instrument-to-eye contact to obtainment of the 5th axial length scan that provided a standard deviation of 0.05 or less.
Results:
There was no statistically significant difference between the axial lengths measured amongst SonoMed contact manual and any Eye Cubed automated measurement (contact p=0.25, immersion p=0.29).For each method, timing (average and standard deviation) was the following: SonoMed contact manual (97.7 ± 51.1 sec), Eye Cubed contact manual (17.8 ± 11.5 sec), Eye Cubed contact automatic (156.6 ± 98.0 sec), Eye Cubed immersion manual (7.5 ± 4.6 sec), and Eye Cubed immersion automatic (47.2 ± 61.5 sec).Compared to SonoMed’s contact manual mode, the Eye Cubed provided a statistically significant improvement in measurement timing using the manual modes of contact (p=0.0004) and immersion (p=0.0002): Figure. There was no statistically significant improvement in timing using the automated measurements modes with either contact (p=0.11) or immersion (p=0.10).
Conclusions:
Our study suggests that the Eye Cubed axial lengths are comparable to those obtained by SonoMed. Moreover, Eye Cubed’s most reliable setting, immersion manual, provides accurate axial lengths in one tenth of the time compared to the SonoMed and can significantly improve the efficiency of a resident clinic.
Keywords: anterior segment • cataract • training/teaching cataract surgery