Purpose To compare the measurements and failure rates obtained with a new swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based biometry to IOLMaster 500.

Setting Eye Clinic, Baskent University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.

Design Observational cross-sectional study and evaluation of a new diagnostic technology.

Methods 188 eyes of 101 subjects were included in the study. Measurements of axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), corneal power (K1 and K2) and the measurement failure rate with the new Zeiss IOLMaster 700 were compared with those obtained with the IOLMaster 500. The results were evaluated using Bland–Altman analyses. The differences between both methods were assessed using the paired samples t test, and their correlation was evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results The mean age was 68.32±12.71 years and the male/female ratio was 29/72. The agreements between two devices were outstanding regarding AL (ICC=1.0), ACD (ICC=0.920), K1 (ICC=0.992) and K2 (ICC=0.989) values. IOLMaster 700 was able to measure ACD AL, K1 and K2 in all eyes within high-quality SD limits of the manufacturer. IOLMaster 500 was able to measure ACD in 175 eyes, whereas measurements were not possible in the remaining 13 eyes. AL measurements were not possible for 17 eyes with IOLMaster 500. Nine of these eyes had posterior subcapsular cataracts and eight had dense nuclear cataracts.

Conclusions Although the agreement between the two devices was excellent, the IOLMaster 700 was more effective in obtaining biometric measurements in eyes with posterior subcapsular and dense nuclear cataracts.