Critical evaluation of the NR-1000F Auto Refractometer

The manifest (dry) refractions of 165 eyes of 86 patients, aged 6 to 75 years, were studied on the Nikon Auto Refractometer NR-1000F. The results obtained were compared with the clinical refractive data, and they were analysed for degree of agreement of various refractive components in different types and grades of refractive errors in the separate age groups. On the NR-1000F the spherical and cylindrical components and spherical equivalents skewed towards more minus (or less plus), especially so in emmetropes, low hypermetropes, and low myopes. This error declined with increasing age over 40 years and was also significantly lower in aphakia and mixed astigmatism. Determination of cylinder axis was found to be reliable on the NR-1000F. In spite of the obvious utility of the device its inbuilt automatic fogging system does not seem adequately to neutralise the patient's accommodative efforts, as the fixation target probably induces instrument myopia.