title: Wavefront aberrations in eyes of emmetropic and moderately myopic school children and young adults.
abstract: Wavefront aberrations were measured using a psychophysical ray-tracing technique in both eyes of 316 emmetropic and moderately myopic school children and young adults. Myopic subjects were found to have greater mean root mean square (RMS) value of wavefront aberrations than emmetropic subjects. Emmetropic adults had the smallest mean RMS, which remained smaller than the values for myopic adults and children and for emmetropic children both when second order Zernike aberrations (astigmatism) and third order Zernike aberrations were removed. Twenty percent of myopic adults had RMS values greater than values for all of the emmetropic adults, with significantly greater values for Zernike aberrations from second to seventh orders. High amounts of wavefront aberrations, which degrade the retinal image, may play a role in the development of myopia.
authors.affiliation: New England College of Optometry, 424 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. hej@ne-optometry.edu
authors.forename: Ji C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Held
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thorn
authors.forename: Xiuru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jane E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Gwiazda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D001251:Astigmatism / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D009216:Myopia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D012029:Refraction, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors