Comparing ocular biometry and autorefraction measurements from the Myopia Master with the IOLMaster 700 and the Huvitz HRK-8000A autorefractor.

PURPOSE: To compare axial length (AL) and corneal radius (CR) measured with the Oculus Myopia Master and the Zeiss IOLMaster 700, and cycloplegic refractive error measured with the Myopia Master and the Huvitz Auto Ref/Keratometer (HRK-8000A). METHODS: The study included both eyes of 74 participants (16 male), with a mean (SD) age of 22.8 (3.7) years. The parameters indicated were measured under cycloplegia with these instruments: Myopia Master (AL, CR and refractive error), IOLMaster 700 (AL and CR) and HRK-8000A (refractive error and CR). Bland-Altman plots with mixed effects 95% limits of agreement (LoA) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the agreement in ocular biometry between the Myopia Master and the IOLMaster 700, and for refractive error between the Myopia Master and the HRK-8000A. RESULTS: The analysis included 139 eyes, of which 52 were myopic (spherical equivalent refractive error, SER ≤ -0.50 D), 32 emmetropic and 55 hyperopic (SER ≥ 0.50 D). The 95% LoA for AL between the Myopia Master and IOLMaster 700 was -0.097 to 0.089 mm. There was no mean difference in AL [mean (SD) = -0.004 (0.047) mm, p = 0.34]. There was a significant difference in mean CR, with that measured with the Myopia Master being flatter than that found with the IOLMaster 700 [0.035 (0.028) mm, p < 0.001]. The 95% LoA for CR was -0.02 to 0.09 mm. Compared with HRK-8000A, the Myopia Master measured a significantly more negative SER [-0.19 (0.33) D, p < 0.001], with 95% LoA of -0.86 to 0.46 D. CONCLUSION: The LoA for measurements of SER, CR and AL when comparing the Myopia Master with the HRK-8000A and the IOLMaster 700 were wider than deemed acceptable for making direct comparisons. This indicates that the instruments cannot be used interchangeably in clinical practice or research.

Laboured reading and musculoskeletal pain in school children - the role of lifestyle behaviour and eye wear: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle behaviour in children and adolescents has become increasingly sedentary and occupied with digital work. Concurrently, there has been an increase in the prevalence of headache, neck- and low back pain, which are leading causes of disability globally. Extensive near work and use of digital devices are demanding for both the visual system and the upper body head-stabilizing musculature. Uncorrected vision problems are present in up to 40% of Nordic school children, and a lack of corrective eye wear may cause eyestrain, musculoskeletal pain and headache. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between laboured reading, musculoskeletal pain, uncorrected vision, and lifestyle behaviours in children and adolescents. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study with a total of 192 Norwegian school children aged 10-11 and 15-16 years. As a part of a school vision testing program, the children completed an online questionnaire about general and ocular health, socioeconomic status, academic ambition, near work and related symptoms, upper body musculoskeletal pain, and physical and outdoor activities. RESULTS: The 15-16-year-olds had a more indoor, sedentary, digital-based lifestyle with higher academic demands, compared with the 10-11-year-olds. Concurrently, reading became more laboured and upper body musculoskeletal pain increased with age. Girls reported more symptoms, higher academic ambitions, and more time spent on schoolwork and reading, compared with boys. Non-compliance in wearing prescribed eye wear (glasses or contact lenses), increased use of near digital devices, and experiencing visual stress (glare) were positively associated with laboured reading and upper body musculoskeletal pain. CONCLUSIONS: A screen-based lifestyle with high academic demands challenges the ability to sustain long hours of static, intensive near work. Extensive near work tires the visual system and upper body musculature and provokes laboured reading and musculoskeletal pain symptoms. This study emphasizes the importance of regular eye examinations in school children, and the need to raise awareness among children, parents, and school- and health personnel about the importance of optimal vision and visual environment for academic performance and health.

Vision status of children aged 7-15 years referred from school vision screening in Norway during 2003-2013: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Undetected vision problems is an important cause of reduced academic achievement, performance in everyday life and self-esteem. This receives little attention in national health care services in Norway even though most of these vision problems are easily correctable. There are no published data on how many Norwegian schoolchildren are affected by correctable vision problems. This study aims to determine the vision status in primary and secondary schoolchildren referred from vision screening during the 10 year period of 2003-2013. METHODS: Of the 1126 children (15%) aged 7-15 years referred to the university eye clinic by the school screening program, all 782 who attended the eye clinic were included in the study. Patient records were retrospectively reviewed with regard to symptoms, refractive error, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of logMAR, binocular vision, ocular health and management outcomes. RESULTS: Previously undetected vision problems were confirmed in 650 (83%) of the children. The most frequent outcomes were glasses (346) or follow-up (209), but types of treatment modalities varied with age. Mean refractive errors were hyperopic for all age groups but reduced with age (ANOVA, p < 0.001). Overall, 51% were hyperopic, 32% emmetropic and 17% myopic. Refractive errors did not change across the decade (linear regression, all p > 0.05). Mean logMAR BCVAs were better than 0.0 and improved with age (ANOVA, p < 0.001). The most prevalent symptoms were headaches (171), near vision problems (149) and reduced distance vision (107). CONCLUSIONS: The vision screening identified children with previously undetected visual problems. This study shows that the types of visual problems varied with age and that most problems could be solved with glasses. Our results stress the importance of regular eye examinations and that vision examinations should be included in primary health care services. Furthermore, there is a need for raised awareness among parents and teaching staff regarding vision problems in children.

A demonstration of 'broken' visual space.

It has long been assumed that there is a distorted mapping between real and 'perceived' space, based on demonstrations of systematic errors in judgements of slant, curvature, direction and separation. Here, we have applied a direct test to the notion of a coherent visual space. In an immersive virtual environment, participants judged the relative distance of two squares displayed in separate intervals. On some trials, the virtual scene expanded by a factor of four between intervals although, in line with recent results, participants did not report any noticeable change in the scene. We found that there was no consistent depth ordering of objects that can explain the distance matches participants made in this environment (e.g. A>B>D yet also A

Cue combination for 3D location judgements.

Cue combination rules have often been applied to the perception of surface shape but not to judgements of object location. Here, we used immersive virtual reality to explore the relationship between different cues to distance. Participants viewed a virtual scene and judged the change in distance of an object presented in two intervals, where the scene changed in size between intervals (by a factor of between 0.25 and 4). We measured thresholds for detecting a change in object distance when there were only 'physical' (stereo and motion parallax) or 'texture-based' cues (independent of the scale of the scene) and used these to predict biases in a distance matching task. Under a range of conditions, in which the viewing distance and position of the target relative to other objects was varied, the ratio of 'physical' to 'texture-based' thresholds was a good predictor of biases in the distance matching task. The cue combination approach, which successfully accounts for our data, relies on quite different principles from those underlying traditional models of 3D reconstruction.

Variability of the accommodation response in early onset myopia.

PURPOSE: Hyperopic retinal defocus (blur) is thought to be a cause of myopia. If the retinal image of an object is not clearly focused, the resulting blur is thought to cause the continuing lengthening of the eyeball during development causing a permanent refractive error. Both lag of accommodation, especially for near targets, and greater variability in the accommodative response, have been suggested as causes of increased hyperopic retinal blur. Previous studies of lag of accommodation show variable findings. In comparison, greater variability in the accommodative response has been demonstrated in adults with late onset myopia but has not been tested in children. This study looked at the lag and variability of accommodation in children with early onset myopia. METHODS: Twenty-one myopic and 18 emmetropic children were tested. Dynamic measures of accommodation and pupil size were made using eccentric photorefraction (PowerRefractor) while children viewed targets set at three different accommodative demands (0.25, 2, and 4 D). RESULTS: We found no difference in accommodative lag between groups. However, the accommodative response was more variable in the myopes than emmetropes when viewing both the near (4 D) and far (0.25 D) targets. Since pupil size and variability also varied, we analyzed the data to determine whether this could account for the inter-group differences in accommodation variability. Variation in these factors was not found to be sufficient to explain these differences. Changes in the accommodative response variability with target distance were similar to patterns reported previously in adult emmetropes and late onset myopes. CONCLUSIONS: Children with early onset myopia demonstrate greater accommodative variability than emmetropic children, and have similar patterns of response to adult late onset myopes. This increased variability could result in an increase in retinal blur for both near and far targets. The role of accommodative variability in the etiology of myopia is discussed.

Short-term adaptation of the human corneal endothelium to continuous wear of silicone hydrogel (lotrafilcon A) contact lenses after daily hydrogel lens wear.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to assess whether improved oxygen availability to the cornea resulted in changes in the corneal endothelium. METHODS: Eighteen adult (average age 25.3 +/- 5.1 years) hydrogel lens wearers (average of 5.5 years prior daily lens wear, range 3-9 years) were refitted with silicone hydrogel lenses (Focus Night and Day) for continuous wear over 30 days and nights. They were assessed in detail immediately before the refit (baseline measures) and again after 6 months of wear with lens replacement every 30 days. Assessments included slit biomicroscopy (for grading of limbal and bulbar redness), corneal staining with fluorescein, and then by noncontact specular microscopy for central corneal thickness (CCT) and endothelial cell layer images. The endothelial images exported as JPEG files and printed at 7000x magnification. The cell-cell borders were marked and then the areas of an average of 255 cells/image measured with a digitizer pad in stream mode. The number of cell sides was also counted. RESULTS: After 6 months of silicone hydrogel lens wear, most subjects showed an improvement in mean bulbar (1.1 to 0.9) and limbal redness (1.0 to 0.6, p < 0.001) and epithelial fluorescein staining (0.5 to 0.3) grades, and the mean CCT values decreased slightly in most subjects (0.527 to 0.520 mm), although the decrease was not statistically significant (p = 0.565). The mean endothelial cell area also increased slightly (358 to 363 microm2; p nonsignificant [NS] = 0.701), whereas the mean coefficient of variation (COV) decreased slightly (30.2 to 29.1%, p NS = 0.357). The calculated mean endothelial cell density (ECD; area/1000000 microm2) also decreased slightly from 2821 to 2774 cells/mm, but this change also was not statistically significant (p = 0.620). However, the changes in ECD showed a very substantial relationship to the changes in CCT, i.e., as CCT decreased, so the apparent ECD decreased; this change was highly significant (r = 0.747, p < 0.001). This relationship was slightly stronger still when possible image magnification differences were corrected for. The percentage of six-sided ("hexagonal") cells increased slightly (58.3 to 60.1%). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that, in silicone hydrogel lens wearers exhibiting positive external eye signs thought to be associated with improved oxygen availability, subtle morphologic changes (marginally decreased polymegethism and pleomorphism) in the central region of the corneal endothelium can occur. It remains to be established, however, whether these changes can be directly attributed to oxygen effects (reduced hypoxia and hypercapnia altering the endothelial cells) or to a mechanical effect (in which changes in corneal thickness result in a reorganization of the corneal endothelium).