Optometry最新文献

Background

With the estimated increase in the number of Americans with vision-related disabilities on the horizon, the need for optometrists with expertise in low vision rehabilitation services will increase. State optometric certification in low vision rehabilitation is currently only available in 3 states through affiliations between the state optometric associations and other organizations or government entities.

Methods

A mail survey was conducted among Michigan Optometric Association member optometrists designed to address the current percentage of optometrists who practice low vision rehabilitation as well as the percentage who are low vision certified through the Michigan Optometric Association and to establish future need for additional low vision rehabilitation providers in the state.

Results

Of the 188 participants, only 26.0% stated that they provide low vision rehabilitation services, the majority of whom provide only primary care low vision rehabilitation. Only 6.4% of respondents are certified low vision rehabilitation specialists through the Michigan Optometric Association.

Conclusion

The low percentage of optometrists in the state of Michigan who practice low vision rehabilitation may lead to a shortage of providers for the aging and visually impaired Michigan population seeking low vision rehabilitation services. Even fewer are certified low vision providers through the voluntary Michigan Optometric Association certification process.

Peripapillary subretinal neovascular membranes (PSRNVM) are most commonly associated with age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic causes in older patients. In younger patients, the condition has been linked to a wide variety of other conditions. As with the more commonly occurring macular form of choroidal neovascular membranes, PSRNVM can also lead to severe vision loss. Therefore, clinicians must take care to avoid overlooking this event to provide appropriate management and treatment. Current knowledge of PSRNVM suggests the importance of regular examinations of the affected eye in both treated and untreated cases to watch for progression and recurrence, which are unpredictable, and also of the fellow eye because there is a high risk of bilateral involvement.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to directly measure lenticular thickness and its additivity after 1 and 2 hours of continuous reading at near in myopic and emmetropic young adults.

Methods

Thirty-five subjects consisting of 12 early-onset myopes, 11 late-onset myopes, and 12 emmetropes were tested. Axial lenticular thickness was measured in the right eye using A-scan ultrasonography before and immediately after 1 and 2 hours of continuous reading at near (35 to 40 cm).

Results

Group mean (±SD) changes in lenticular thickness from baseline values after the first and second hours of reading were 0.025 ± 0.011 and 0.035 ± 0.017 mm, respectively. The group mean increase in lenticular thickness after the second hour was significantly larger than after the first hour, with subsequent subgroup analysis indicating that this was found in the myopes only.

Conclusion

The lenticular increase was additive in nature, but only in the late-onset and early-onset myopes. This confirmed and extended objectively earlier studies that suggested increased nearwork accommodative susceptibility of a primarily lenticular nature in myopes.