The Bagolini striated lens test for cyclotropia

Measurements of cyclotropia obtained by two different techniques were compared in ten patients with superior oblique palsies. These techniques were the Maddox double rod test and a new test for cyclotropia using the Bagolini striated lenses. In contrast to the Maddox rods, the Bagolini lenses permit a nearly normal view of the visual environment; in addition with the Bagolini striated lens test, the patient's eyes were not prismatically dissociated as in the Maddox double rod test, but instead prisms were used when necessary to eliminate horizontal and vertical image disparities prior to measuring cyclotropia. The Bagolini striated lens test thereby permitted cyclotropia adaptive mechanisms to function under nearly normal viewing conditions. The two tests yielded similar measurements of cyclotropia under dissociated binocular conditions, but in several patients different results were found with the Bagolini striated lenses when associated vertical and horizontal heterotropias were eliminated spontaneously or prismatically. Three cases are reported in whom the Bagolini striated lens test provided important clinical information not revealed by the Maddox double rod test.