Ametropia and higher order Aberrations in Children 12–13 years of age.

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose: To measure and analyze ametropia and higher order aberrations in eyes of children 12–13 years of age. Methods: The eyes of 485 children age 12–13 years were measured using an irx3 (Imagine Eyes, Orsay, France) aberrometer. Data on ametropia were analyzed for sphere and cylinder power and type of astigmatism. Higher order aberrations were computed from wavefront error data for pupil size as presented in the measurements and described in Zernike terms up to the 27th order. Comparison is made between gender and symmetry of aberrations between right and left eyes. Results: Spherical ametropia ranged from +4.29D to –6.17D (mean –0.6D,SD 1.24D). Minus cylinder power ranged from 0.03D to 4.78D (mean 0.44D, SD 0.43D). Absence of, with the rule, against the rule and oblique astigmatism was present in 72.6%, 15.0%, 7.0% and 5.4% of the eyes, respectively. In average, aberrations were distributed as follows: defocus 85.8%, astigmatism 8.8%, coma 2.4%, trefoil 1.4%, spherical aberration 0.7% and other 0.8%. The proportion of myopes was 50% higher in girls than in boys. Correlation between the coefficients found in OD and OS showed a mirror symmetrical pattern (ex. defocus r=0.89, spherical aberration r=0.82, vertical coma r=0.77, oblique trefoil r=0.63). The aberration (in micrometers) from the ideal wavefront for Coma90 was higher in myopes (average +0.25) than in emmetropes (average +0.12). Conclusions: In children 12–13 years of age the statistics on optical aberrations of the eyes show a symmetrical pattern between right and left eyes and are similar to those obtained in young adults.

Keywords: optical properties • refraction • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques