TY - JOUR T1 - Reproducibility and accuracy of measurements with a hand held autorefractor in children JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 941 LP - 948 DO - 10.1136/bjo.81.11.941 VL - 81 IS - 11 AU - Erin M Harvey AU - Joseph M Miller AU - L Keith Wagner AU - Velma Dobson Y1 - 1997/11/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/81/11/941.abstract N2 - AIM To determine reproducibility and accuracy of the Nikon Retinomax autorefractor when used with children who were made cycloplegic. METHODS Autorefraction and retinoscopy or subjectively refined retinoscopy (where, under the patient’s direction, the refraction was varied until the best visual acuity was achieved) were performed on the right eye of 47 children, age 11–93 months. Autorefraction was performed using the Nikon Retinomax, which provides up to eight measured values of refractive error and one representative measurement of refractive error. RESULTS Autorefractor measurements were successfully obtained from 7/9 children age 3 years or younger, and from all older children. Vector methods were used to calculate differences. Retinomax reproducibility averaged 0.43 D. Unbiased Retinomax and retinoscopy measurements differed by an average of 0.82 D. Unbiased Retinomax and subjectively refined retinoscopy differed by an average of 1.03 D. CONCLUSIONS Reproducibility of Retinomax measured values in children is comparable with reproducibility of retino scopy, subjective refraction, and autorefraction measurements in adults. Agreement between Retinomax and retinoscopy and agreement between Retinomax and subjective refinement in children is comparable with agreement between autorefraction and subjective refraction in adults. The study indicates that the Retinomax is a useful instrument for measuring refractive errors in young children. ER -