An objective and rapid method for the determination of light dissemination in the lens.

A method for the objective measurement of light dissemination in the lens was developed. There is an exponential relationship between the concentration of standard solutions and the intensity of light disseminated forwards. The light disseminated in non-pathological lenses from Sprague Dawley rats was registered as the equivalent standard concentration, C, and then transformed to log10 (C + 1) and was found not to deviate from the normal distribution. The tolerance limit for light dissemination was derived by setting the probability to classify a non-pathological lens as pathological. An analysis of variance demonstrated that the inter-animal variation was the dominating source of imprecision. It is anticipated that the developed system will be useful in experimental toxicological risk assessment.