title: Ethnic differences in higher-order aberrations: Spherical aberration in the South East Asian Chinese eye.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the distribution of higher-order corneal and ocular aberrations in a healthy refractive surgery population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Island Hospital, Penang, Malaysia.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective observational study, 1 eye of ethnic Chinese refractive surgery patients was evaluated with an Orbscan II corneal topographer and a Zywave Hartmann-Shack aberrometer with a 6.0 mm pupil. Height data were analyzed to derive the higher-order aberrations (HOAs) from the 3rd to 5th Zernike order.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean spherical equivalent in the 70 eyes evaluated was -6.46 diopters +/- 3.10 (SD). The mean total corneal HOA was 0.574 +/- 0.218 microm (range 0.269 to 1.249 microm) and the mean total ocular HOA, 0.525 +/- 0.354 microm (range 0.138 to 2.145 microm). There was no statistically significant correlation with age. The mean 3rd-order ocular aberration was 0.399 +/- 0.287 microm; the mean 4th-order, 0.297 +/- 0.223 microm; and the mean 5th-order, 0.108 +/- 0.101 microm. Corneal spherical aberration was greater than ocular spherical aberration (mean 0.312 +/- 0.114 microm versus 0.200 +/- 0.170 microm). Multilinear regression showed that the only dependent that predicted ocular spherical aberration was anterior corneal asphericity (r(2) = 0.227, F = 17.95, P<.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Corneal and ocular aberrations in South East Asian Chinese eyes were significantly greater than that reported in other populations. Population differences in wavefront errors were significant, and this should be noted in patient management.
authors.affiliation: iLaser Centre, Penang, Malaysia. kooiling@islandhospital.com
authors.forename: Kooi Ling
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Han Bor
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Fam
mesh_terms: D057128:Aberrometry; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology*; D019781:Corneal Topography; D057108:Corneal Wavefront Aberration / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult