Ocular Component Development during Infancy and Early Childhood.

Significance: The study fills an important gap by providing a longitudinal description of development of the major structural and optical components of the human eye from 3 months to nearly 7 years of age. Normative development data may provide insights into mechanisms for emmetropization and guidance on intraocular lens power calculation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the pattern of development of refractive error and the ocular components from infancy through early childhood.

Accommodation, acuity, and their relationship to emmetropization in infants.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between accommodation, visual acuity, and emmetropization in human infancy.

Methods: Defocus at distance and near (57 cm) was assessed using Mohindra and dynamic retinoscopy, respectively, in 262 normal birthweight infants at 3, 9, and 18 months of age. Preferential looking provided acuity data at the same ages.

Axial growth and changes in lenticular and corneal power during emmetropization in infants.

Purpose: To evaluate the contribution made by the ocular components to the emmetropization of spherical equivalent refractive error in human infants between 3 and 9 months of age.

Methods: Keratophakometry in two meridians was performed on 222 normal-birthweight infant subjects at 3 and 9 months of age. The spherical equivalent refractive error was measured by cycloplegic retinoscopy (cyclopentolate 1%).

Refractive astigmatism and the toricity of ocular components in human infants.

Purpose: Many studies have characterized astigmatism in infancy, but few have been longitudinal or contained ocular component data. This study characterized the frequency, orientation, and longitudinal change with age of infant astigmatism. Additional factors investigated were the influence of early astigmatism on emmetropization and its relation to corneal and lenticular toricity.