[Quantification of corneal aberrations with an aberration coefficient].

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Optometry
• Biomedical Engineering

Context:

• Corneal aberrations are crucial in understanding visual quality.
• Zernike polynomials are established for describing corneal surface deviations.
• A novel aberration coefficient offers a new metric for quantifying these deviations.

Purpose:

• To introduce and validate a new aberration coefficient for quantifying corneal deviations.
• To compare this coefficient across healthy eyes, keratoconus, contact lens wearers, and post-LASIK eyes.
• To assess the clinical utility of the aberration coefficient in various ophthalmic conditions.

Summary:

• The study calculated a new aberration coefficient using videokeratometry data from 300 healthy eyes, 113 keratoconus eyes, 326 contact lens wearers, and 119 post-LASIK eyes.
• The aberration coefficient was abnormal in 99.2% of keratoconus patients, correlated with disease severity, and detected significant distortions in hard contact lens wearers and post-LASIK eyes.
• The coefficient proved useful for keratoconus classification, contact lens fitting quality control, and quantifying post-LASIK corneal aberrations.

Impact:

• The aberration coefficient is a valuable tool for diagnosing and managing corneal conditions.
• It reveals that optical aberrations after LASIK surgery are more prevalent than previously thought.
• This coefficient can improve patient outcomes through better diagnostics and surgical assessments.