The Safety of Soft Contact Lenses in Children.

Purpose: There is increasing interest in fitting children with soft contact lenses. This review collates data from a range of studies to estimate the incidence of complications, specifically corneal infiltrative events and microbial keratitis, in patients under the age of 18 years.

Methods: Peer-review papers were identified using PubMed and the Web of Science.

Variability in Objective Refraction for Persons with Down Syndrome.

Purpose: Down syndrome (DS) is associated with ocular and cognitive sequelae, which both have the potential to influence clinical measures of refractive error. This study compares variability of autorefraction among subjects with and without DS.

Methods: Grand Seiko autorefraction was performed on 139 subjects with DS (age: 8-55, mean: 25 ± 9 yrs) and 138 controls (age: 7-59, mean: 25 ± 10 yrs).

Scotoma Visibility and Reading Rate with Bilateral Central Scotomas.

Purpose: In this experiment, we tested whether perceptually delineating the scotoma location and border with a gaze contingent polygon overlay improves reading speed and reading eye movements in patients with bilateral central scotomas.

Methods: Eight patients with age-related macular degeneration and bilateral central scotomas read aloud MNRead style sentences with their preferred eye. Eye movement signals from an EyeLink II eyetracker were used to create a gaze contingent display in which a polygon overlay delineating the area of the patient's scotoma was superimposed on the text during 18 of the 42 trials.

Objectively Measured Light Exposure in Emmetropic and Myopic Adults.

Purpose: Light exposure has a close link with numerous aspects of human physiology including circadian rhythm, mood disorders, metabolism, and eye growth. Here, a lightweight wrist-worn device was employed to continuously measure light exposure and activity across seasons and between refractive error groups to assess objectively measured differences and compare with subjectively reported data.

Methods: Subjects, aged 21-65 years (n = 55), wore an actigraph device (Actiwatch Spectrum) continuously for 14 days to quantify light exposure, activity, and sleep.

Comparison of Whole Eye versus First-Surface Astigmatism in Down Syndrome.

Purpose: Subjects with Down syndrome have structural differences in the cornea and lens, as compared with the general population. This study investigates objectively measured refractive and corneal astigmatism, as well as calculated internal astigmatism in subjects with and without Down syndrome.

Methods: Refractive (Grand Seiko autorefraction) and anterior corneal astigmatism (difference between steep and flat keratometry obtained with Zeiss Atlas corneal topography) were measured in 128 subjects with Down syndrome (mean [±SD] age, 24.

Wavefront-guided scleral lens correction in keratoconus.

Purpose: To examine the performance of state-of-the-art wavefront-guided scleral contact lenses (wfgSCLs) on a sample of keratoconic eyes, with emphasis on performance quantified with visual quality metrics, and to provide a detailed discussion of the process used to design, manufacture, and evaluate wfgSCLs.

Methods: Fourteen eyes of seven subjects with keratoconus were enrolled and a wfgSCL was designed for each eye. High-contrast visual acuity and visual quality metrics were used to assess the on-eye performance of the lenses.

Fixation locus in patients with bilateral central scotomas for targets that perceptually fill in.

Purpose: In this experiment, we investigated whether target type affects the retinal fixation location and stability in patients with bilateral central scotomas and, specifically, whether targets expected to perceptually fill in are imaged at or near the vestigial fovea.

Methods: The retinal location and stability of fixation were measured using the Nidek MP-1 microperimeter in 12 patients with bilateral central scotomas for six types of fixation target, three expected to fill in and three that included letters. The approximate position of the vestigial fovea was delineated in 10 of the patients either by using residual retinal landmarks or by locating the residual foveal pit in a dense macular scan obtained with a Spectralis optical coherence tomographer.