An application of ultrasonic tissue characterization to the diagnosis of cataract.

From a therapeutic and pathological point of view, it is important to classify types of cataract and to identify their stages. However, accepted criteria for quantitative diagnosis have not been established. On the other hand, based on the experience from tissue characterization applied to other clinical fields, the attenuation characteristics of the lens are expected to change according to the stage of disease and the type of cataract. In this study from echo signals we tried to measure the attenuation coefficient of the lens with the purpose of quantitatively diagnosing the cataract, and at an early stage. It is shown that the attenuation of the cataractous lens is larger than that of the normal lens and its value depends on the type of the cataract, an indication of the possibility of using tissue characterization in the evaluation of cataract.