In vivo CT and MR appearance of prosthetic intraocular lens.

PURPOSE: We present the first in vivo CT and MR imaging description of intraocular lenses (IOLs), which are commonly encountered in elderly patients who have undergone cataract surgery.

METHODS

A retrospective review was done of the imaging studies of 20 patients (22 eyes) with IOLs and of three patients (four eyes) with aphakia. CT and MR studies were performed with standard clinical protocols.

RESULTS

Sixteen patients with 18 posterior IOLs underwent six CT and 43 MR studies. Four patients with four anterior IOLs had one CT and eight MR studies. The exact position of the optic portion of the IOL could be optimally determined on CT scans with 1-mm-thick sections and on fat-saturated fast T2-weighted MR orbital coil studies performed on a 1.5-T imager. The haptics could not be distinguished from the ciliary body. Three patients with aphakia had eight MR and two CT studies. Aphakia was difficult to identify if the image thickness was greater than the diameter of the pupil (2.5 to 4.0 mm).

CONCLUSION

The optic portion of an IOL is visible on either high-quality CT or MR studies. However, the haptic portion is not visible on clinical in vivo images.