When noise becomes signal: A study of blink rate using an eye tracker.

Purpose: Although blink rate is considered important for digital eye strain and dry eye conditions, its assessment has been mostly manual. This study aimed at quantifying blink rate automatically using the Eyelink 1000 Plus eye tracker and comparing it with manual counting. Additionally, blink rate was correlated with reading eye movements and reading speed.

Optometric education in India: addressing the needs of three billion eyes.

Optometry, a nearly century-old profession in India, plays an important role in determining the eye health status in the country. Professional regulation is in sight for optometry through the establishment of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act (NCAHP), 2021. The review offers critical insights on the present status of Indian optometric education - its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats - and identifies several areas of improvement for continued growth.

Understanding visual snow syndrome: A retrospective study from a tertiary eye care center.

Purpose: Visual snow syndrome is a debilitating neurological condition. A comprehensive eye examination may not detect any abnormalities in this condition. Presently the condition is recognized only through the history elicited.

Parent-Reported Visual Concerns in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment Presenting to a Pediatric Neurology Clinic.

Purpose: Children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI) present with delayed developmental milestones. Pediatricians and pediatric neurologists are usually the first point of contact, and eye exam largely remains referral based. This study documented the visual concerns reported by parents of children with CVI visiting a pediatric neurology clinic.

Refractive error changes and associated asthenopia observed after COVID-19 infection: Case reports from two continents.

COVID-19 infection has been linked to various ocular complications and complaints, but not to refractive errors. In this case report, we present ethnically diverse patients who reported asthenopic symptoms shortly after recovering from COVID-19 infection. The hyperopic shift in the refractive error, post-COVID could indicate the ciliary body muscle's inability to sustain accommodation, resulting in asthenopia.

Unraveling congenital ptosis with the aid of the pediatric perimeter device.

Background: Ocular morbidity with an early onset can have a significant impact on the long-term development of an individual. Hence, careful assessment of visual functions early on is very important. However, testing infants always poses a challenge.

Children With Amblyopia Make More Saccadic Fixations When Doing the Visual Search Task.

Purpose: Individuals with amblyopia are known to have functional vision deficits (e.g., reduced reading speed) in spite of good visual acuity in the nonamblyopic eye.

Impact of induced pseudomyopia and refractive fluctuations of accommodative spasm on visual acuity.

Clinical Relevance: High-contrast visual acuity is disproportionately poor in patients with accommodative spasm subtype of near reflex (SNR-A), relative to uncorrected refractive errors of equivalent magnitude. This exaggerated loss of performance in SNR-A may be explained by the combination of pseudomyopia and its fluctuations, vis-à-vis, each factor considered separately.

Background: To determine how combinations of pseudomyopic refraction and its temporal variations in SNR-A impact high-contrast visual acuity by inducing these patterns in healthy cyclopleged adults, relative to their baseline acuity.

Grating acuity tests for infants, young children and individuals with disabilities: A review of recent advances.

Background: Accurate measurement of visual acuity is important in managing any ocular condition. Measuring visual acuity has always remained a challenge in infants, young children and individuals with disabilities who are unable to respond verbally. A variety of pediatric acuity tests that include both grating and recognition acuities have been described in the literature, some of which are outdated.

Clinical Utility of 'Peekaboo Vision' Application for Measuring Grating Acuity in Children with Down Syndrome.

Peekaboo Vision is an iPad grating acuity app built with typically developing children in mind. Given the ease of using this app in the pediatric age group, this study determined its clinical utility in children with Down syndrome. Two groups of participants (children with Down syndrome and age-matched controls) were included.

Quantification of gaze reaction time in infants with Pediatric Perimeter.

Purpose: We quantified the eye/head (gaze) reaction time in infants to establish a normative database for the Pediatric Perimeter device. Additionally, we tested the hypothesis that gaze reaction time will reduce with age.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted.

Fluctuations of Steady-State Accommodation Is a Marker for Screening Spasm of Near Reflex.

Purpose: To determine the utility of root mean squared (RMS) deviations of steady-state accommodation as a noncycloplegic marker for spasm of near reflex (SNR) vis-à-vis regular refractive errors.

Methods: Binocular steady-state responses of accommodation, pupil, and vergence of 20 patients with accommodative spasm subtype of SNR (SNR-A; 9-23 years) and 91 with regular refractive errors (29 emmetropes, 41 myopes, 21 hyperopes; 19-38 years) was recorded in the uncorrected refractive error state for 120 seconds using a dynamic (50 frames per second), infrared photorefractor. Mean and RMS deviation of raw data was calculated for three 20-second-long epochs and their diagnostic utility was determined using standard ROC curves.

Validation of visual acuity applications for teleophthalmology during COVID-19.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify and validate smartphone-based visual acuity (VA) apps that can be used in a teleophthalmology portal.

Methods: The study was conducted in three phases: A survey to investigate if the SmartOptometry App was easy to download, understand and test (phase I), an in-clinic comparison of VA measured in a random testing order with four tools namely COMPlog, Reduced Snellen near vision, Peek Acuity (Distance VA) and SmartOptometry (Near VA) (phase II) and a repeatability study on these 4 tools by measuring VA again (phase III). The study recruited the employees of our institute and adhered to the strict COVID-19 protocols of testing.

Quantifying Suppression in Anisometropic Amblyopia With VTS4 (Vision Therapy System 4).

Purpose: Visual acuity (VA) of the amblyopic eye is usually considered for monitoring improvement with therapy. However, participation of the amblyopic eye under binocular viewing conditions is also important. This study investigated the use of a clinically available tool VTS4 (Vision Therapy System 4) to quantify the participation or suppression of the amblyopic eye under binocular viewing conditions.

Spasm of Near Reflex: Objective Assessment of the Near-Triad.

Purpose: To characterize binocular steady-state accommodation, pupil and convergence responses (near triad) in spasm of near reflex (SNR) before and after optical and pharmacological intervention. To identify the putative source of SNR in the neural control schema of accommodation-vergence interaction using controls-engineering modeling.

Methods: Near-triad of 15 patients with SNR (9 to 23 years) was recorded using an infrared photorefractor at 2m viewing distance for 120s during clinical presentation, after optical fogging intended to relieve spasm, with cycloplegia, post-cycloplegia and long-term follow-up visits.

Construction and Validation of LEA Hindi Chart: A Multicenter Study.

Significance: This study explains the construction and validation of a chart in Hindi language, one of the commonly spoken languages in the world. The new visual acuity chart is called LEA Hindi chart. The calligraphy construction method described here can help develop other such acuity charts.

Prevalence of visual hallucinations.

Background: To determine the prevalence of visual hallucinations and to report its associations with demographic and clinical factors in a population-based survey in India.

Methods: Prevalence of visual hallucinations was determined as a part of a large prospective, cross-sectional, population-based study that was carried out in two districts of Telangana, namely Khammam and Warangal. Multi-stage cluster random sampling was used in this study.

Screening for Charles Bonnet syndrome: Should the definition be reconsidered?

Purpose: Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is a condition in which individuals with visual impairment (VI) and with no cognitive deficits experience visual hallucinations, typically with no other sensory hallucinations. Although few isolated case reports of CBS from India have been published, the prevalence for CBS in India is largely unknown. The primary aim of this study was to estimate CBS prevalence in patients with vision impairment visiting a tertiary eye care center.

Near vision in individuals with Down syndrome: a vision screening study.

Objectives: Children with Down syndrome are known to have reduced focusing ability for near vision (hypoaccommodation). Through a vision screening study we investigated the correlation between hypoaccommodation and near visual acuity in individuals with Down syndrome.

Methods: A cross-sectional vision screening study was conducted on individuals with Down Syndrome.

Fittle: A Novel Braille Toy.

Significance: Toys for children with visual impairment and blindness are very limited. We have developed a three-dimensional (3D)-printed Braille puzzle with a potential for educational use.

Purpose: This article describes the development of a novel Braille toy using 3D printing technology that potentially could be used for teaching Braille for children with blindness and/or profound visual impairment.