Purpose To assess the relationship between measures of
light distortion and retinal straylight in normal and post-
LASIK subjects.
Design Cross-sectional, non-randomized, masked observational
case series
Setting Clinica Oftalmologica Novovision, Madrid, Spain. Methods Thirty eyes from 30 healthy subjects (mean age
33.9±8.3 years old; mean spherical equivalent (MSE) −2.06±
1.40 D) and thirty six eyes from thirty six refractive surgery
patients (mean age 36.1±7.7 years old; mean preop MSE
−3.43±2.23 D) were examined with the Starlights and the
C-Quant straylightmeter in a case-control study.
Results The age of both treated and control groups was not
statistically different (p>0.05). Statistically significant differences
between controls and post-LASIK eyes were found for
luminous distortion index (LDI), but not for retinal straylight.
Correlation analysis yielded significant correlation
between retinal straylight Log(s) values and BCVA measures
(r=0.379, p=0.002). Control subjects showed significant
correlation between MSE and retinal straylight Log(s) values
(r=-0.650, p<0.001), while post-LASIK eyes showed a
significant correlation between LDI and Log(s) values (r=
0.338, p=0.044) and between Log(s) values and BCVA (r=
0.460, p=0.005). Correlation between measures obtained by
both methods was higher after LASIK than in control eyes,
although values were quite scattered in any case.
Conclusion Light distortion phenomena and retinal straylight
measures are correlated in both normal and postsurgical
eyes. Both parameters are increased in LASIK
subjects compared to control non-operated subjects.This research was supported in part by a Universitat de Valencia Research Grant (#UV-AE-08-2291#) and a Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (#JC2008-00078) to Alejandro Cervino, from the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia of Portugal through a Grant to Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Meijome (#PTDC/SAU-BEB/098392/2008#), and from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (Red Tematica de Investigacion en Optometria, SAF2008-01114-E)
