title: Accommodation measurements in a prepresbyopic and presbyopic population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the efficacy of several subjective and objective methods of accommodation measurement in normal prepresbyopic and presbyopic populations to identify appropriate methods for measuring the outcome of accommodative restorative procedures.
  
  
  METHODS
  University of Houston, College of Optometry, Houston, Texas, USA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-one normal subjects with a mean age of 43.7 years (range 31 to 53 years) participated. Accommodation was measured monocularly using 3 subjective approaches--the push-up test, minus lenses to blur, and a focometer--and 2 approaches measured with a Hartinger coincidence refractometer, in which accommodation was stimulated with minus lenses to blur and topical pilocarpine 6%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The push-up method overestimated accommodative amplitude relative to objective measures in 28 subjects. Two subjective methods, minus lenses to blur and the focometer, produced comparable results, but with lower amplitudes in younger subjects and higher amplitudes in older subjects compared with objective methods. Comparable results were obtained when accommodation was stimulated in 1 of 2 ways and measured with the Hartinger. Pilocarpine elicited stronger accommodative responses than distance blur for subjects with low accommodative amplitudes. Pilocarpine 6% produced stronger responses in subjects with light irides than in those with dark irides.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hartinger-measured accommodation provides more realistic measurement of accommodative amplitude than the subjective methods tested, especially in the presbyopic population. In presbyopic subjects, the subjective tests resulted in accommodative amplitudes up to 4.0 diopters greater than those measured with objective tests. Measurements of accommodative amplitude are best achieved with objective methods to stimulate and measure accommodation.
authors.affiliation: College of Optometry, University of Houston, 4901 Calhoun Road, Houston, TX 77204, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Ostrin
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glasser
mesh_terms: D000065:Accommodation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D005127:Eye Color; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008916:Miotics / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010862:Pilocarpine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011305:Presbyopia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011680:Pupil / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D008916:Miotics; D010862:Pilocarpine