Related Research Articles
Far-sightedness, also known as long-sightedness, hypermetropia, or hyperopia, is a condition of the eye where distant objects are seen clearly but near objects appear blurred. This blurred effect is due to incoming light being focused behind, instead of on, the retina wall due to insufficient accommodation by the lens. Minor hypermetropia in young patients is usually corrected by their accommodation, without any defects in vision. But, due to this accommodative effort for distant vision, people may complain of eye strain during prolonged reading. Some hypermetropes can see clear at distance, but near vision may be blurred due to insufficient accommodation. For this reason, this defect is referred as far-sightedness. If the hypermetropia is high, there will be defective vision for both distance and near. People may also experience accommodative dysfunction, binocular dysfunction, amblyopia, and strabismus. Newborns are almost invariably hypermetropic, but it gradually decreases as the newborn gets older.
Presbyopia is physiological insufficiency of accommodation associated with the aging of the eye that results in progressively worsening ability to focus clearly on close objects. Also known as age-related farsightedness, it affects many adults over the age of 40. A common sign of presbyopia is difficulty reading small print which results in having to hold reading material farther away. Other symptoms associated can be headaches and eyestrain. Different people will have different degrees of problems. Other types of refractive errors may exist at the same time as presbyopia. This condition is similar to hypermetropia or far-sightedness which starts in childhood and exhibits similar symptoms of blur in the vision for close objects.
Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates a person's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity depends on optical and neural factors. Optical factors of the eye influence the sharpness of an image on its retina. Neural factors include the health and functioning of the retina, of the neural pathways to the brain, and of the interpretative faculty of the brain.
Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) is a method of examination of the eye. It uses the technique of confocal laser scanning microscopy for diagnostic imaging of the retina or cornea of the human eye.
Refractive error, also known as refraction error, is a problem with focusing light accurately on the retina due to the shape of the eye and or cornea. The most common types of refractive error are near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia. Near-sightedness results in far away objects being blurry, far-sightedness and presbyopia result in close objects being blurry, and astigmatism causes objects to appear stretched out or blurry. Other symptoms may include double vision, headaches, and eye strain.
Intraocular pressure (IOP) is the fluid pressure inside the eye. Tonometry is the method eye care professionals use to determine this. IOP is an important aspect in the evaluation of patients at risk of glaucoma. Most tonometers are calibrated to measure pressure in millimeters of mercury (mmHg).
An eye examination is a series of tests performed to assess vision and ability to focus on and discern objects. It also includes other tests and examinations pertaining to the eyes. Eye examinations are primarily performed by an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or an orthoptist. Health care professionals often recommend that all people should have periodic and thorough eye examinations as part of routine primary care, especially since many eye diseases are asymptomatic.
Accommodation is the process by which the vertebrate eye changes optical power to maintain a clear image or focus on an object as its distance varies. In this, distances vary for individuals from the far point—the maximum distance from the eye for which a clear image of an object can be seen, to the near point—the minimum distance for a clear image. Accommodation usually acts like a reflex, including part of the accommodation-vergence reflex, but it can also be consciously controlled. Mammals, birds and reptiles vary their eyes' optical power by changing the form of the elastic lens using the ciliary body. Fish and amphibians vary the power by changing the distance between a rigid lens and the retina with muscles.
An autorefractor or automated refractor is a computer-controlled machine used during an eye examination to provide an objective measurement of a person's refractive error and prescription for glasses or contact lenses. This is achieved by measuring how light is changed as it enters a person's eye.
A vergence is the simultaneous movement of both eyes in opposite directions to obtain or maintain single binocular vision.
Convergence insufficiency is a sensory and neuromuscular anomaly of the binocular vision system, characterized by a reduced ability of the eyes to turn towards each other, or sustain convergence.
Positive relative accommodation (PRA) in biology, is a measure of the maximum ability to stimulate eye accommodation while maintaining clear, single binocular vision. This measurement is typically obtained by an orthoptist, ophthalmologist or optometrist during an eye examination using a phoropter. After the patient's distance correction is established, she or he is instructed to view small letters on a card 40 cm from the eyes. The examiner adds lenses in −0.25 diopter increments until the patient first reports that they become blurry. The total value of the lenses added to reach this point is the PRA value.
Drusen, from the German word for node or geode, are tiny yellow or white accumulations of extracellular material that build up between Bruch's membrane and the retinal pigment epithelium of the eye. The presence of a few small ("hard") drusen is normal with advancing age, and most people over 40 have some hard drusen. However, the presence of larger and more numerous drusen in the macula is a common early sign of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Franciscus (Franz) Cornelius Donders FRS FRSE was a Dutch ophthalmologist. During his career, he was a professor of physiology in Utrecht, and was internationally regarded as an authority on eye diseases, directing the Netherlands Hospital for Eye Patients. Along with Graefe and Helmholtz, he was one of the primary founders of scientific ophthalmology.
Accommodative convergence is that portion of the range of inward rotation of both eyes that occurs in response to an increase in optical power for focusing by the crystalline lens. When the human eye engages the accommodation system to focus on a near object, signal is automatically sent to the extraocular muscles that are responsible for turning their eyes inward. This is helpful for maintaining single, clear, and comfortable vision during reading or similar near tasks. However, errors in this relationship can cause problems, such as hyperopic individuals having a tendency for crossed eyes because of the over exertion of their accommodation system.
Accommodative insufficiency (AI) involves the inability of the eye to focus properly on an object. Accommodation is the adjustment of the curvature of the lens to focus on objects near and far.
Emmetropia is the state of vision in which a faraway object at infinity is in sharp focus with the ciliary muscle in a relaxed state. That condition of the normal eye is achieved when the refractive power of the cornea and eye lens and the axial length of the eye balance out, which focuses rays exactly on the retina, resulting in perfectly sharp distance vision. A human eye in a state of emmetropia requires no corrective lenses for distance; the vision scores well on a visual acuity test.
A focometer is an instrument that measures refractive errors and is intended to provide rural or economically disadvantaged populations spherical eyeglass prescriptions without the need for complicated protocols, expensive equipment, or electricity. The focometer is monocular and hand-held, and is normally used in natural lighting. Patients rotate a collar on the focometer until the best focus is achieved. The individual's refractive power is then read off a linear dioptre scale.
Adjustable focus eyeglasses are eyeglasses with an adjustable focal length. They compensate for refractive errors by providing variable focusing, allowing users to adjust them for desired distance or prescription, or both.
Laser blended vision is a sophisticated laser eye treatment which is used to treat presbyopia or other age-related eye conditions. It can be used to help people that simply need reading glasses, and also those who have started to need bifocal or varifocal spectacle correction due to ageing changes in the eye. It can be used for people who are also short-sighted (myopia) or long-sighted (hyperopia) and who also may have astigmatism.
References
- ↑ Anderson H, Hentz G, Glasser A, Stuebing K, Manny R. Minus-Lens–Stimulated Accommodative Amplitude Decreases Sigmoidally with Age: A Study of Objectively Measured Accommodative Amplitudes from Age 3. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2008; 49; 2919-2926.
- ↑ Atchison D, Capper E, McCabe, K. Critical subjective measurement of amplitude of accommodation. Optom Vis Sci 1994; 71: 699-706
- ↑ Hamasaki D, Ong J, Marg E. The amplitude of accommodation in presbyopia. Am J Optom 1956; 33: 3-14.
- ↑ Duane A. Studies in monocular and binocular accommodation with their clinical applications. Trans Am Ophthalmol Soc 1922; 20: 132-157
- ↑ Donders F. On the anomalies of the accommodation and refraction of the eye. (W. Moore Trans.) UK: The New Sydenham Society, 1864. p 207-209.