Introduction: Dietary fat may affect lens cell membrane composition and function, which are related to senile cataract. Cataract is the first cause of blindness in the world and nutrition and lifestyle play an important role in its development. Recent studies have reported that dietary fat may affect lens cell membrane composition and function, which ultimately will result in senile cataract.Objective: To survey the association between dietary fatty acids and senile cataractMaterials and Methods: This study is a case-control investigation with a retrospective approach conducted on 350 patients approved by an eye specialist (175 patients suffering from senile cataract and 175 people in control group) via clinical examination and interview, who had been visited in the eye clinic of Amir Al Momenin hospital from March 2013 to March 2014. Data about intake of selected fatty acids were evaluated using a valid semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) assessing a 168 item food index.Results: There was a significant positive correlation between saturated fatty acids, oleic acid, linolenic acid and linoleic acid consumption and the senile cataract status in both groups. In addition, an inverse relationship between the status of senile cataract and a high intake of eicosapentaenoic acid and decosa hexaenoic acid was observed.Conclusion: High intake of some fatty acids may increase the risk of age related nuclear opacity. However, more studies are needed to verify this association and clarify the relationship between intake fatty acids and senile cataract.

Background: Oxidative agents like ultraviolet are one of the important cause of cataract and vitamin C is an important water soluble antioxidant agent in the aqueous humor. This study aimed to evaluate the concentration of vitamin C in the aqueous and plasma of patients with senile cataract. Methods: In a descriptive cross- sectional study on 85 patients (41 men and 44 women) admitted for cataract surgery, aqueous (0.2 ml) and blood (5ml) were sampled just before operation under general anesthesia from anterior chamber and vein, respectively. Spectrophotometer measured the concentration of vitamin C in both samples. Results: The mean age was 64.3±11.1 years. Aqueous and plasma concentration of vitamin C was 4.29± 1.11 mg/dl and 0.77±0.0332 mg/dl, respectively. The differences were statistical significant (P≈0). Vitamin C of aqueous were equal in both sexes, but vitamin C of plasma in women were higher than men (P= 0.043). The concentration of vitamin C showed no relation to the type of cataract. Conclusions: Vitamin C of aqueous and plasma in senile cataract are lower than normal. More study is recommended for evaluating preventive effect of high vitamin C diets or supplements.

Introduction: Senile cataract is the most prevalent cause of blindness in the world. Variety of causes are involved in the pathogenesis of senile cataract, the most important reason is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress occurs because of increased production of free radicals in the body and decrease antioxidant capacity. One of the defense systems against free radicals is superoxide dismutase I (Cu/zn SOD). SOD enzyme catalyses the dismutation of superoxide anion to O2 and H2O2. Several polymorphisms have been found associated with SOD1 gene. Present study has been done to evaluation effects of genetic polymorphism, including SOD1+35A>C polymorphism in senile cataract patients and normal individuals.Materials and Methods: in this case – control study, there are 120 patients with senile cataract and 104 healthy people. We collected 2ml of whole blood in tubes containing EDTA, and then DNA extraction was performed. Polymorphisms were detected by PCR–RFLP technique.Results: The distribution of AA, AC genotypes of SOD1 gene in the patient with senile cataract were 99.2% and 0.8%. Similarly, distribution of AA, AC genotype in the healthy group were 99% and 1%, respectively. The genotype of CC was not seen in none of the patients and control subjects.Conclusion: No significant differences in the distribution SOD1+35A>C polymorphism was observed between cases and controls.

Purpose: To determine and compare the frequency and distribution of pterygium in patients with and without senile cataract.Materials and Methods: In this case-control study 98 patients with cataract (196 eyes) and 98 patients without cataract (196 eyes) almost in the same age and sex, and without any probable and definite cataract risk factor like diabetes mellitus, eye trauma,... were selected and examined.Results: Findings of 196 eyes with cataract showed that frequency of ptreygium in right eyes was 26.5% and in left eyes was 17.3%. Findings of 196 eyes without cataract showed a frequency of 14.2% in right eyes and 16.3% in left eyes. Pterygium in right eyes had significant difference between two groups (X2 = 4.52, P<0.03) but there were not any significant difference between the left eyes (X2 = 0.3, P<0.82). Conclusion: UV rays contribute to cataract and pterygium formation.

Purpose: Senile cataract is the opacity of the crystalline lens which is usually due to aging. Visual functions have an important role in the quantity of vision. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the visual function indices before the cataract surgery and respectively one and two months after the surgery.Methods: Forty patients (14 female and 26 male) with senile cataract have been monitored in this research. The mean age was 51.1±8.4 years. All patients were examined by Log MAR Visual Acuity (VA) test, Ishihara Color Vision (CV) test (the number of pages with correct answer) and Freiburg Contrast Sensitivity (CS) test (in 1, 5 and 7 cycles per degree (cpd) at different spatial frequencies (SF)), as the indices of visual functions before the surgery and respectively one and two months after it. At first, the normality of data distribution has been tested by Klomogorov-Smirnov test. In addition, repeated measures ANOVA has been used for the comparison of data variance with Greenhouse-Geisser and Mauchly tests and the Partial test has been used for the evaluation of correlation between the data.Results: There was a significant difference in visual acuity before the surgery and respectively one (P=0.003) and two (P=0.007) months after it (ie, increasing in VA index) and the same for two months after the surgery in comparison with one month after it (P<0.001). There was no significant difference in color vision before the surgery and respectively one (P=0.370) and two months (P=0.367) after it. There was no significant difference in contrast sensitivity before the surgery and respectively one and two months after it except for SF 1 cpd (P=0.045 for one month and P=0.021 for two months after the surgery).Conclusion: Cataract surgery increases the VA and the CS in low spatial frequencies significantly, but has no significant influence on color vision.