Novel Subclassification of Presbyopia Based on Lens Functional and Structural Features.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to classify eyes with presbyopia using lens functional and structural features to aid in surgical decision making.

METHODS

This cross-sectional observational study included healthy volunteers or those solely affected by presbyopia. Lens function was assessed using dysfunction lens index (DLI), whereas lens density was evaluated with Pentacam (LD-P) and swept-source optical coherence tomography (LD-S). Principal component analysis (PCA) and k-means clustering classified participants into non-lens surgery (NLS) and lens surgery (LS) groups. A scoring system was developed from the optimal cutoff values for simplified diagnosis, with a website created for automatic classification.

RESULTS

Totally, 352 eyes of 176 patients were studied, with a mean age of 46.1 ± 6.2 years and a mean axial length of 24.42 ± 1.62 mm. Among them, 268 (76.1%) eyes were diagnosed with presbyopia. The top 5.2% (14/268) of presbyopia cases with the highest variability were excluded by PCA. Subsequently, 138 eyes (51.5%) were clustered into the NLS group, and 116 eyes (43.3%) into the LS group. The LS group presented lower DLI and higher lens density compared to the NLS group (all P < 0.001). Optimal cutoff values were determined as follows: DLI = 7.75, LD-P = 8.75, and LD-S = 60.05 pixel units. The scoring system demonstrated that combining DLI with LD-P achieved the highest diagnostic efficacy. A website (www.zhu-zhou-lf.com) was developed for automatic classification.

CONCLUSIONS

We proposed a novel classification of presbyopia using lens functional and structural features.

TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: This classification, integrating DLI and lens density values, offers a diagnostic tool to guide surgical decisions in presbyopia.