AIM:To investigate the clinical value of optical coherence tomography(OCT)combined with ophthalmic B-type ultrasound in fundus examination before cataract surgeries.

METHODS:Conventional ophthalmoscope, ophthalmic B-type ultrasound and OCT were used to exam the fundus of 176 cataract patients(278 eyes). The positive rate of fundus diseases by the three methods was calculated, and then McNemar test was used to analyze the data in pairs and the values of the three methods on diagnosis of fundus diseases were investigated.

RESULTS:Thirty-two eyes were diagnosed with fundus diseases by conventional ophthalmoscope with positive rate of 11.5%, 18 eyes(6.5%)by ophthalmic B-type ultrasound, 6 eyes(2.2%)of those 18 eyes were serious lens turbidity. Fifty-one eyes(18.3%)were diagnosed with fundus diseases by OCT and 57 eyes(20.5%)by OCT combined with ophthalmic B-type ultrasound. The positive rate of fundus disease detected by OCT had significant difference at the level of α=0.05 compared with those by ophthalmic B-type ultrasound, conventional ophthalmoscope and OCT combined with ophthalmic B-type ultrasound.

CONCLUSION:OCT is more valuable and more sensitive on detecting macular diseases than the other two. However, the structure of retinal layer of the patients who had serious lens turbidity cannot be observed, which can be remedied by ophthalmic B-type ultrasound. The examination of OCT combined with ophthalmic B-type ultrasound is the most valuable one on accurate and early diagnosis of fundus diseases and the prediction of the visual acuity after surgeries.