Images produced by the Scheimpflug principle are being used to quantitate eye opacities in a study, whose purpose is to evaluate the potential for the accurate evaluation of changes in cataract patients. This may provide a means of documenting and monitoring cataracts in vivo, allowing clinical trials of drugs that may prevent or reverse the cataract formation process. Statistical evaluation of our results has been submitted for publication. In addition, we are considering the viability of using computer clustering methodology for automatic classification or diagnosis of cataracts. Preliminary results suggest the applicability of these techniques; further analyses are in progress.
