Abnormal High Signal Intensity Discovered in Eye Lenses in Routine Brain MRI; Correlation with Ophthalmologist Examination

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the possible role of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in cataract detection. Patients and Methods: This study was performed on patients who were referred to Shahid Faghihi hospital with a known disease for brain MRI. Patients were classified in two groups of case and controls. Cases were 44 eyes with abnormal signal of the lens and controls were 88 eyes with normal signal intensity of the lens. All patients underwent an ophthalmological examination and the presence of cataract and intraocular lens (IOL) was assessed in these patients. Average lens signal, average muscle signal, average fat signal, lens to muscle signal ratio, and average lens signal to average fat signal ratio were recorded. Results: The mean of the average lens signal in the case group was significantly higher than controls (370 versus 161, respectively) (P value < 0.0001). Sixteen (36.4%) out of 44 eyes in the case group had cataract, but 48 (54.5%) of 88 eyes in the control group had cataract (P value = 0.049). In the case group, 18.2% had IOL, and this was 6.8% in the controls (P value = 0.046). The mean of the average lens signal in eyes with cataract was 218.5 and in normal eyes, it was 249.1 (P value = 0.36). In eyes with IOL, the mean of the average lens signal was 347.5 and in normal eyes, this was 223.1 (P value = 0.036). Conclusion: Cataract in eyes with abnormal lens signal was significantly lower than eyes with normal lens average signal. The lens signal in eyes with cataract was similar to eyes without cataract. So, average lens signal in brain MRI does not lead to early detection of cataract.