The transparency of the lens: a comparison between diabetic and non-diabetic patients.

The transparency of the lens of 485 eyes of 266 healthy volunteers were compared with 143 eyes of 83 diabetic patients. All the patients had well controlled diabetes. The transparency of the lens was measured with the opacity lensmeter 701. The concept of the instrument is based on the measurement of scattered light. The result revealed a similar transparency of the lenses of diabetic patients in relation to the normal volunteers. There was only a slight, and statistically not significant trend in the older age group versus a greater opacity for diabetic patients.