Accommodative disorders are extremely common in optometric practice. Abundant clinical evidence demonstrates the treatability of accommodative disorders, but their diagnosis and treatment remain severely limited due to the lack of adequate equipment. There is a need for an instrument that makes it easy to diagnose and treat accommodative disorders. In a preliminary study, a prototype instrument was used to provide oscillating accommodation training to 11 subjects who hadreduced amplitude of accommodation for 7 to 20 weeks. It was found that the amplitudes in all pre-presbyopic subjects increased by 1 to 4 diopters. In this research, an instrument will be built that will measure objectively the amplitude and the dynamic parameters of accommodation, using infrared optometry, and that will also exercise accommodation. The instrument will be evaluated in a double-blind pilot study involving 20 subjects with subnormal amplitude.The long-term objective is to develop a commercial instrument capable of measuring objectively and automatically the steady-state and the dynamic parameters of accommodation, and of exercising accommodation. This instrument will be of great value to the optometric practitioner and will allow the successful diagnosis and treatment of a large number of patients who suffer from accommodative disorders.
Anticipated Results:An instrument for the diagnosis and treatment of accommodative disorders would be an important revenue-producing tool for clinicians because a very large number of patients suffer from accommodative disorders and remain untreated because of the lack of adequate instrumentation.National Eye Institute (NEI)
