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Cataract Signs and Symptoms
Introduction
- Cataract is the presence of opacity in the crystalline lens that causes painless, progressive blurring of vision
- Leading cause of blindness worldwide and the most prevalent ocular disease
- Mechanism of cataract formation is multifactorial
- Chronic and age-related
Etiology
- Initiating events that lead to loss of transparency of both the cortical and nuclear lens tissue is the oxidation of the membrane lipids, structural or enzymatic proteins or DNA by peroxidases or free radicals induced by ultraviolet (UV) light
Risk Factors
- Increasing age
- UV radiation - ultraviolet B (UVB) cumulative lifetime exposure
- Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, high body mass index
- Drugs (eg long-term topical, systemic or inhaled corticosteroids, Phenothiazine, Chlorpromazine)
- Smoking
- Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol
- Gender - females are most likely to have cataract and progress to blindness
- Nutrition - low antioxidant levels is associated with increased risk of cataract formation
- Obesity
- Dehydration/diarrheal crises
- Genetics in age-related cataract cases (eg cortical cataracts and nuclear cataracts)
- Prior intraocular surgery
- Moderate to high myopia
- Exposure to ionizing radiation (eg chest x-ray, radiation therapy)
- Ocular trauma
Signs and Symptoms
- Decreased vision and increased problems with glare are the hallmark symptoms
- Increased nearsightedness called "myopic shift" before opacity of the lens occur
- Typically bilateral but often asymmetrical
