title: Testing young infants with the Welch Allyn suresight non-cycloplegic autorefractor.
abstract: Both eyes of 74 healthy 2-12-month-old human infants were refracted twice with the new Welch Allyn SureSight non-cycloplegic autorefractor. At least one reliable estimate of sphere and cylinder was obtained from both eyes of all babies attempted, and 88% of infants contributed two estimates from each eye. These measurements were collected in less than 2 min. Although spherical estimates changed little over the first year (mean = +1.78 D), cylindrical error appeared to decrease from a mean of about 1.4 D (at 6 months) to 0.9 D (at 12 months). Refractive estimates and variability agreed well with published infant data obtained with traditional cycloplegic retinoscopy. Repeatability was excellent for measurement of cylinder but for sphere, 17% of infants' estimates differed by at least 1.0 D between tests. However, given its simplicity and time-efficiency, the SureSight should be a good candidate for the relatively easy screening of significant refractive error in non-verbal paediatric patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Canada. michelem@mun.ca
authors.forename: Russell J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dalton
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Heather L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Mary L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Courage
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001251:Astigmatism / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008403:Mass Screening; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy; D012029:Refraction, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards