Abstract
Purpose :
Nowadays, we are facing the widespread of visual impairments and/or blindness all over the world, particularly in developing countries. It is known that visual impairments and age-related eye diseases (e.g., cataract, age-related macular degeneration) not only affect quality of life, economic and educational opportunities, but also increase the risk of death. Cataract is the most common cause of blindness in the world, and the underlying reasons for this include poverty, doctor shortages, and the lack of medical equipment used for ocular examination. Therefore, to solve these problems, we invented a smartphone-attachable inexpensive medical device "Smart Eye Camera (SEC)", which enables us to examine patients’ eyes. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the usefulness of SEC in evaluating cataract grade compared to the conventional unportable slit-lamp microscope.
Methods :
This prospective clinical study was performed from July to September of 2019. One hundred three eyes from 57 Japanese patients diagnosed as the cataract by the existing device and SEC were included. The mean ±SD age of the patients was 72.4 ± 9.7 years (range, 51-92 years), and the majority was female (n=31, 54.3%). Cataract was classified into five nuclear sclerotic (NS) grading by the Emery-Little lens opacities classification. First, both the resident and the specialist assessed cataract by using the existing slit-lamp microscope and calculated the mean NS grading. Second, the ophthalmic healthcare assistant photographed the cataract by SEC and then the professor scored the NS grading. Finally, we examined the correlation of these results, and inter-rater reproducibility was also evaluated using weighted κ statistics.
Results :
Four eyes in which imaging could not be confirmed by SEC and 7 eyes with intraocular lens were excluded. The evaluated score of cataract NS grading by SEC and the conventional slit-lamp microscope was significantly correlated with each other (51 right eyes: r=0.54; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.31 to 0.72, 52 left eyes: r=0.47; 95% CI=0.22 to 0.66). The strength of the inter-rater agreement was moderate (weighted κ value=0.410).
Conclusions :
The results of this study suggested that portable SEC was as reliable as the conventional unportable slit-lamp microscope in evaluating the classification of cataract.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.