Original article
Age-related changes in corneal and ocular higher-order wavefront aberrations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2004.01.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate age-related changes in ocular and corneal higher-order wavefront aberrations and elucidate relative contributions of the cornea and the lens in the age-related changes.

Design

Observational case series.

Methods

Corneal and ocular higher-order wavefront aberrations in the central 6 mm diameter were measured with videokeratography and the Hartmann-Shack wavefront aberrometer in 75 normal eyes of 75 patients with a mean age of 43.5 ± 11.7 years (range, 18–69 years). Higher-order wavefront aberrations were calculated with Zernike polynomials up to sixth order. From the Zernike coefficients, we calculated root mean square (RMS) of coma and spherical aberration. To examine age-related changes of the polarity of spherical aberration, the changes of the Zernike coefficient Z40 was also investigated.

Results

Both corneal (r = .307, P = .007) and ocular (r = .334, P = .0033) coma RMS showed positive correlations with age. There was a positive correlation between corneal and ocular coma RMS (r = .468, P < .0001). The RMS of corneal spherical aberration did not change with aging (r = .153, P = .1895), whereas the RMS of ocular spherical aberration had a positive correlation with aging (r = .308, P = .0068).

Conclusions

These results suggest that the ocular coma increases with age, mainly because of the increase in the corneal coma, and the ocular spherical aberration increases with age, mainly because of the increase in the spherical aberration in the internal optics.

Section snippets

Design

Observational case series of patients without history of ocular abnormalities.

Patients and methods

Subjects were selected from the patients who visited the Miyata Eye Hospital for ocular examination. All of the subjects had no history of ocular abnormalities and had best-corrected visual acuity of 20/20 or better. All subjects gave informed consent before participation. The research protocol adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Videokeratographic and wavefront aberration data were obtained with computerized videokeratography and the Hartmann-Shack wavefront analyzer, both of

Results

From 81 patients, data for the central 6 mm were not obtained in six eyes of six patients, which were excluded from the study. In these six patients, the mean age was 58.5 years (range, 31 to 68 years) and the mean spherical equivalent (SE) of the manifest refraction was −0.86 ± 3.41 diopters (range, −7.38 to +2.75 diopters). Seventy five eyes of 75 subjects were examined (22 men, 53 women; age range, 18 to 69 years). The spherical component of their manifest refraction ranged from +3.5

Discussion

The current results showed that both corneal and ocular coma RMS showed positive correlations with age. Previous studies separately reported the increase of corneal15, 16 or ocular9, 10, 11, 12 coma with aging. We found a positive correlation between corneal and ocular coma in the same eyes. Moreover, the corneal and ocular comas were similar in the magnitude. These results strongly suggest that the increase of ocular coma with aging is mainly because of the increase of corneal coma.

Corneal

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