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Updated: Sep 30, 2025
Simulating the Mechanics of Lens Accommodation via a Manual Lens Stretcher
Published on: February 23, 2018
Axial Elongation During Short-Term Accommodation in Myopic and Nonmyopic Children
Rohan P J Hughes1, Scott A Read1, Michael J Collins1
1Queensland University of Technology, Contact Lens and Visual Optics Laboratory, Centre for Vision and Eye Research, School of Optometry and Vision Science, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Purpose:
Axial length increases during accommodation in adults and children; however, refractive error group differences are conflicting and have not been explored in pediatric populations. This study aimed to evaluate differences in accommodation-induced axial elongation between myopic and nonmyopic children.
Methods:
A range of ocular biometric measurements were captured during brief accommodation tasks (0, 3, 6, and 9 D) using a Badal optometer mounted to a noncontact optical biometer (Zeiss IOLMaster 700). Reliable measurements were captured for 15 myopic and 15 age- and sex-matched nonmyopic children. The average central corneal thickness (CCT), anterior chamber depth (ACD), crystalline lens thickness (LT), anterior segment length (ASL), vitreous chamber depth (VCD), and axial length (AL) were determined for each accommodation stimulus. Raw measurements of AL and VCD were corrected for the estimated error associated with LT increases during accommodation.
Results:
All biometric parameters, except CCT, changed significantly during accommodation (all P < 0.001). Myopic children exhibited significantly greater accommodation-induced axial elongation than nonmyopic children (P = 0.002) at the 3, 6, and 9 D accommodation stimuli, with a mean difference of 7, 10, and 16 µm, respectively (all pairwise comparisons, P ≤ 0.03). The changes in all other biometric parameters were not different between the refractive error groups (P ≥ 0.23).
Conclusions:
Accommodation-induced axial elongation was greater in myopic than nonmyopic children. This finding could support a potential mechanism linking near work, axial elongation, and myopia development in children or may reflect greater susceptibility to accommodation-induced axial elongation in children with established myopia.
