From earlier to updated quadrifocal intraocular lens designs: objective optical metrology analysis.

Abstract

Purpose: To compare the optical performance of the Clareon PanOptix and Clareon PanOptix Pro intraocular lenses (IOLs) using interferometric metrology and identify measurable optical differences.

Setting: Physiological Optics Laboratory, Daegu, South Korea.

Design: Experimental optical-bench investigation.

Methods: 3 +20.0-diopter samples each of the PanOptix and PanOptix Pro IOLs were analyzed using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer in a model eye incorporating +0.27 μm corneal spherical aberration (SA). Microscopic imaging, wavefront reconstruction with Zernike analysis, diffractive-step profile reconstruction, point-spread function (PSF)-based retinal image simulation, halo analysis, and through-focus modulation transfer function (MTF) analysis were performed.

Results: Both IOLs showed broadly similar diffractive architecture and SA profiles. Peak-to-valley step-profile amplitudes were comparable, although the PanOptix Pro showed localized differences in the reconstructed step-height contour. PSF-based analyses showed broadly similar focal behavior, but the PanOptix Pro demonstrated clearer Sloan F contour preservation and more evident central PSF-core brightness at the far-intermediate position. In through-focus average MTF (aMTF) profiles, the PanOptix Pro showed a modestly higher far-focus peak and a less pronounced post-peak dip, particularly at 4.5 and 3.0 mm pupils. MTF50 analysis showed a similar overall pattern, with greater variability and more apparent intermodel differences at larger pupil sizes.

Conclusions: The PanOptix Pro preserves the fundamental design and SA profile of the original PanOptix while showing localized diffractive step-height modifications. Together with clearer far-intermediate F-image preservation, sustained central PSF-core brightness, and a shallower post-peak aMTF dip, these findings are consistent with a relative redistribution of optical energy toward the far-intermediate region, supporting greater far-intermediate optical continuity without substantial changes in nominal add power or overall focal structure.