ABSTRACT
A variation of "stripe therapy" for amblyopia was evaluated with the use of 50 amblyopic subjects. The stimulus consisted of a television game that had been modified to allow simultaneous display of the game and moving stripe patterns. Subjects used their amblyopic eye to play the game for 20 min/wk. Some of the subjects played the game with the super-imposed stripes, whereas a control group played the game without stripes. The exposure sessions continued for eight to 12 weeks, after which the subjects' visual acuities were measured for follow-up periods lasting up to a year. The visual acuities of many persons improved while they were playing the television game, but with wide variation in performance. During the six- to 12-month follow-up period, the visual acuities of patients decreased from the levels attained during the exposure period. There seemed to be no major difference between the results from persons exposed to stripes and those from the control group, either during the exposure sessions or during the follow-up period.
Subject(s)
Amblyopia/therapy , Photic Stimulation/methods , Television , Adolescent , Adult , Amblyopia/physiopathology , Child , Child, Preschool , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Humans , Patient Compliance , Visual AcuityABSTRACT
A variation of "stripe therapy" for amblyopia is described, using a composite video presentation of a television game with horizontal or vertical moving stripe backgrounds. The initial study has been carried out with two groups of amblyopic subjects, one group exposed to stripe backgrounds while playing the television games, and a small control group playing the games without any striped backgrounds. A wide range of results was obtained over several weekly exposure sessions, from possibly significant improvement to essentially no change in visual acuity. The results obtained from the group exposed to striped backgrounds do not appear to be markedly better than those obtained from the control group.
