For healthy eyes intraocular light scatter was investigated several decades ago. For pathological eyes, however, little is known. As clinical test several techniques have been proposed but none has gained general acceptance. A disadvantage of these tests was that quantities were estimated that related only indirectly to the amount of light scatter. We propose a method that gives a direct estimate of the light scatter.We studied patients with cataract, corneal dystrophy, iris and fundus hypopigmentation, etc. A remarkable finding was that visual acuity correlates rather weakly with the amount of scatter. Since, however, the anlount of scatter causes a considerable loss of visual function, the results show that for these patients the visual acuity test gives a rather limited impression of their visual handicap. More attention to the problems associated with intraocular light scatter is needed.

An overview is given of the basic phenomena that may lead to glare complaints in patients. Prominent among them is increased intraocular straylight; this can be measured. Other causes may include: increased sensitivity to normal straylight, the length of (increased) light and dark adaptation times, (small angle) neuronal lateral interaction. Distinction must be made between disability glare and discomfort glare. Tests have been proposed to determine glare-induced loss of various visual functions. Often the test results are thought to be directly related to straylight but this may be untrue.

The authors assessed visual information processing in high-functioning individuals with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) and their parents. The authors used tasks for contrast sensitivity, motion, and form perception to test visual processing occurring relatively early and late in the magnocellular-dorsal and parvocellular-ventral pathways. No deficits were found in contrast sensitivity for low or high spatial frequencies or for motion or form perception between individuals with PDD in comparison with a matched control group. Individuals with PDD performed equally with or better than controls on motion detection tasks. In addition, the authors did not find differences on any of the tasks between parents of the PDD group and matched control parents. These results indicate that high-functioning individuals with PDD and their parents are able to process visual stimuli that rely on early or late processing in the magnocellular-dorsal and parvocellular-ventral pathways as well as controls.

Levels of intraocular straylight log(s) were significantly lower for both types of IOL than in age-matched subjects from the normal population. The mean level of intraocular straylight 6 months postoperatively was higher in patients with an AcrySof ReSTOR SA60D3 IOL than in patients with a monofocal AcrySof SA60AT IOL. Implantation of the former IOL would therefore result in a smaller gain in contrast sensitivity and a smaller reduction in glare and halos than implantation of the latter IOL.