Monochromatic ocular high-order aberrations in children and adolescents

To investigate the prevalence and repeatability of high-order aberrations (HOAs) from non-cyclopleged eyes in 1515 children and adolescents 2.5-18 years of age.

The Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization Diseases (LIFE)-Child study is a population-based, prospective, observational single-centre study that investigates the development of children and adolescents in Germany. Wavefront measurements were repeated three times in each eye of 1515 healthy subjects. Results were described by 36 Zernike coefficients for a 5 mm reference pupil diameter. Short-term repeatability is given for each coefficient. The impact on vision is described by the root mean squared (RMS) value of the HOA Zernike coefficients.

High-order aberrations were dominated by five contributions. For 1004 right eyes: spherical aberration (c₁₂  = 0.06 ± 0.07 μm), coma (c₇  = 0.03 ± 0.09 μm, c₈  = 0.03 ± 0.06 μm) and trefoil (c₆  = -0.01 ± 0.07 μm, c₉  = 0.008 ± 0.06 μm). The RMS value was 0.18 ± 0.06 μm. Modes higher than fourth order do not contribute clinically to the aberrations. HOAs show no clinically significant dependency with age. Instead, HOA values agree well with previous results on aberrations in adult eyes. Spherical aberration was highly correlated between the two eyes. Repeatability was worst for coma, 0.033 μm, due to variability in the alignment of the pupil centre. The left eye showed, on average, a 0.08 mm larger pupil diameter than the right eye (p < 0.02).

Across the age span from 2.5 to 18 years, we see the same distribution of HOA as for adults. We established that only five Zernike coefficients, spherical aberration, coma and trefoil were of clinical significance in healthy eyes. A high correlation between the two eyes for spherical aberration suggests a common blueprint for each eye in any one subject.