Visible changes of the lens with age.

Slit lamp photographs taken along the optical axis of human eyes were examined with a microdensitometer. This showed an increasing opacity in the lens nucleus, an increased opacity and thickness of the cortex and the anterior lens capsule with age. However, the opacity and width of the anterior disjunction zones decreases with age. Patients with clear lenses but who had chronic uveitis, retinal detachment and glaucoma treated with medication, showed large deviations in the behavior of the disjunction zone as compared with other lenses of the same age. In incipient cataract in the aged, the fogging in the lens cortex is greatest when vestiges of the disjunction zone still remain. The cortex is less affected if the disfunction zone is absent.