title: Changes in corneal wavefront aberrations with aging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether corneal wavefront aberrations vary with aging.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred two eyes of 102 normal subjects were evaluated with videokeratography. The data were decomposed using Taylor and Zernike polynomials to calculate the monochromatic aberrations of the cornea for both small (3-mm) and large (7-mm) pupils.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For a 3-mm pupil, the amount of total aberrations (Spearman rank correlation coefficient r(s) = 0.145; P = 0.103) and spherical-like aberrations (r(s) = -0.068; P = 0.448) did not change with aging, whereas comalike aberrations exhibited a weak but statistically significant correlation with age (r(s) = 0.256; P = 0.004). For a 7-mm pupil, total aberrations (r(s) = 0.552; P < 0.001) and comalike aberrations (r(s) = 0.561; P < 0.001) significantly increased with aging, but spherical-like aberrations showed no age-related changes (r(s) = 0.124; P = 0.166). Simulated pupillary dilation from 3 mm to 7 mm caused a 38.0+/-28.5-fold increase in the total aberrations, and the extent of increases significantly correlated with age (r(s) = 0.354; P < 0.001). Pupillary dilation influenced the comalike aberrations more in the older subjects than in the younger subjects (r(s) = 0.243; P = 0.006), but such age dependence was not found for spherical-like aberrations (r(s) = 0.141; P = 0.115).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comalike aberrations of the cornea correlate with age, implying that the corneas become less symmetrical along with aging. Spherical-like aberrations do not vary significantly with aging. Pupillary dilation markedly increases wavefront aberrations, and those effects are more prominent in older subjects than in younger subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oshika
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Klyce
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Applegate
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Howland
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003315:Cornea / Q000502:physiology*; D019781:Corneal Topography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011680:Pupil; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D014792:Visual Acuity