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1From the Neurosciences Research Institute, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom; and the 2Centre for Myopia Research, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
| Abstract |
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METHOD. Forty-five Hong Kong Chinese children, 35 myopes and 10 emmetropes aged 6 to 12 years (median, 7.5), monocularly viewed a letter target through a Badal lens for 5 minutes at either 5.00- or 2.50-D accommodative demand, followed by 3 minutes of viewing the equivalent target at optical infinity. Accommodative responses were measured continuously with a modified, infrared, objective open-field autorefractor. Accommodative responses were also measured for a countercondition: viewing of a letter target for 5 minutes at optical infinity, followed by 3 minutes of viewing the target at a 5.00-D accommodative demand. The results were compared with tonic accommodation and both subject and family history of refractive error.
RESULTS. Retinal-blurdriven NITM was significantly greater in Hong Kong Chinese children with myopic vision than in the emmetropes after both near tasks, but showed no significant dose effect. The NITM was still evident 3 minutes after viewing the 5.00-D near task for 5 minutes. The magnitude of NITM correlated with the accommodative drift after viewing a distant target for more than 4 minutes, but was unrelated to the subjects or family history of refractive error.
CONCLUSIONS. In a preadolescent ethnic population with known predisposition to myopia, there is a significant posttask blur-driven accommodative NITM, which is sustained for longer than has previously been found in white adults.
Both myopic groups in the study by Ciuffreda and Wallis2 were drawn from a sample of adult optometry students with a mean age of approximately 24 years. The authors suggested that the continuing propensity to NITM shown in these individuals represents an inherent characteristic that, earlier in life, induces temporary myopia after exposure to sustained nearwork. In EOM the exposure produces derailment of a preprogrammed pattern of ocular growth in the developing eye. In LOM, where ocular growth due to emmetropization has slowed or ceased before the onset of myopia,4 5 the derailment is more directly attributable to nearwork exposure. Ciuffreda and Wallis2 showed clearly that white adults with early- or late-onset myopia, measured under binocular, free-space, natural viewing conditions, were susceptible to accommodative nearwork aftereffects, even in the presence of normal-distance blur-related feedback.2
Of special relevance to the present study is the subsequent report by Ciuffreda and Thunyalukul6 on a group of children aged 4.7 to 9.9 years. The study demonstrated that juvenile myopes (n = 10) were more susceptible to NITM than emmetropes (n = 10) and further, that subjects in each refractive group who exhibited an initial NITM, sustained the effect throughout a 2-minute posttask period. That NITM is more sustained in children than in adults was attributed by the authors to differences in sympathetic innervation and/or sensitivity to blur. It was further postulated that NITM in conjunction with the decreased blur-driven accommodative response at near associated with newly developed myopia in children may lead to a time-integrated cumulative retinal defocus that triggers axial elongation.
The observation that the ability to detect blur is reduced in adults with myopia7 has been examined recently in a cohort of 20 children (aged 812 years), with or without myopic vision,8 for two different black and white targets (text and scenes) and illumination conditions. There was no correlation between blur thresholds and refractive error magnitude, refractive error progression (over the previous year), or contrast sensitivity. However, blur-detection ability showed significantly greater individual variability in juvenile myopes, which led the authors to suggest that subgroups may differ in ability to detect blur.
Further consideration of the role of retinal defocus is opportune after the recent important advances in theoretical modeling of the development of refractive error.9 10 11 12 The Incremental Retinal Defocus Theory proposed by Hung and Ciuffreda11 offers significant insight into the myopigenic nature of retinal defocus. The critical element of the theory, as it relates to nearwork, is that the detection mechanism triggering ocular growth does not depend on the sign of the retinal blur, but rather on the change in magnitude of blur during genetically programmed ocular growththe rate of ocular growth being dependent on the change in magnitude of retinal defocus, regardless of how it is generated.
A compelling research question is how processing of retinal defocus amalgamates with mechanisms of accommodative adaptation and its neuropharmacologic control. Regarding the former, a computer simulation model constructed by Hung and Ciuffreda13 extended a previous adaptation model14 by adding a proximal component,15 to provide a more realistic and comprehensive representation of the accommodation system and to extend the model to NITM data. The adaptive gain (KA) was used to modify the time constant of the controller and variations in KA (using the original Ciuffreda and Wallis data set2 ) were shown to be the principal determinant of variations in NITM between refractive groups. Indeed, differences in accommodative gain between refractive groups were thought by Culhane and Winn16 to account for their finding, using closed-loop dynamic accommodation measures, that late-onset young adult myopes have significantly longer reflex nearfar response times after sustained 3-minute near tasks.
In a recent study, using similar investigatory techniques, Winn et al.17 present evidence to support proposals by several groups (see review by Gilmartin18 ) that autonomic neuropharmacologic modulation of accommodative adaptation and NITM is a feasible putative control system for sustained near vision. The principal systems concern the integration of parasympathetic and sympathetic innervation of ciliary smooth muscle, such that sympathetic inhibition (through ß2-adrenoceptors) is augmented by concurrent parasympathetic activity (through M3 cholinergic receptors). An anomaly in integration, say for example by a deficit in inhibition, may thus predispose an individual to abnormal postnearwork accommodative responses and possibly have etiological significance in the development of myopia, although only approximately 30% of individuals appear to have access to a sympathetic facility.19 Winn et al.17 used topical ß-adrenoceptor antagonist drugs in five young adult emmetropes to demonstrate inhibitory sympathetic modulation of accommodation responses to dark room open-loop or closed-loop conditions involving systematic stepwise and sinusoidal changes in stimulus vergence.
Whereas the nature of autonomic control and sustained near vision has been addressed in several studies in young adults18 very few have involved children. In this regard, the recent preliminary report by Chen et al.20 is of particular relevance to the present study, as its purpose was to investigate, in Hong Kong children (aged 812 years), the effect of a topical ß antagonist drug, timolol maleate (0.5%, 20 µL), on tonic accommodation measures, before and after playing a 5-minute video game. The profile of posttask responses in the 30 children (10 emmetropes and 20 myopes, 5 with stable and 15 with progressing myopia) appeared to match those shown in previous studies on young adults. The results showed that, whereas timolol increased the magnitude of adaptation in stable myopes, it had no effect on adaptation in progressing myopia and had a counteradaptive effect in emmetropes. The absence of effect of timolol on adaptation in children with progressive myopia implies that they have a deficit in sympathetic inhibition.
The composite near response epitomizes the nature of autonomic control. That is, a profound mediation of central and peripheral processes to ensure an optimum balance between internal and external demands on the organism and future work is needed to elucidate further whether sympathetic control pervades the near vision complex as a whole or is restricted to specific elements of the response.
The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude and time course of NITM induced solely by retinal blur with a variety of stimulus demands in preadolescent Hong Kong Chinese, a group that is particularly susceptible to environmental myopia and that is in the developing phase of myopia.21 22 23 Monocular viewing through a Badal optical system was used to examine the steadysteady blur-driven component of accommodation and to allow control of proximal accommodation.
| Methods |
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The infra-red (IR) autorefractor (SRW-5000; Shin-Nippon Ophthalmic Instruments, Tokyo, Japan) was used to measure the accommodative state of the subjects right eye throughout the experimental trials. The instrument provides an open field of view and quantifies accommodation by image analysis of an IR ring of light, reflected from the retina. Previous studies have shown that this system provides measures of high validity and repeatability in both adult24 and juvenile25 myopes. The autorefractor was modified to allow continuous recording of accommodation, with a resolution of less than 0.01 D.26 Pupil size was always greater than 3 mm, resulting in an approximately constant depth of focus.27
The visual axis of the infrared autorefractor was aligned with the right eye, with the left eye occluded. The subject viewed a row of Arabic letters (>90% contrast), subtending 1 minute of arc (equivalent to 0.00 logMAR), and was prompted at regular intervals to maintain fixation, focus, and attention on the letters. The letters were viewed along the visual axis through a +5.00-D Badal system, and the accommodative demand was changed instantaneously (i.e., in <100 ms) using a solenoid stepper motor. The Badal system ensured the same size and contrast of the target, regardless of the accommodative demand. The subject initially viewed the letter target, of luminance 20.0 cd/m2, located 20 cm behind the Badal lens (i.e., imaged at optical infinity), and concurrent measures of the autorefractor IR measurement ring were recorded dynamically, using a computer program (Labview; National Instruments, Austin, TX), and statically, using the autorefractors preset internal calibration. All data are presented in relation to the subjects baseline distance accommodative state (0.0 D). The lead of accommodation, indicated by the static autorefractor readings when the subject viewed the distant target, is shown on the y axis of Figures 2 3 4 .
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Split-plot analysis of variance (StatView; SAS, Cary, NC)29 was used to examine the differences in posttask NITM between the refractive groups over time. Pearsons product moment coefficient and stepwise analysis were used to test the relationship between NITM, demographic data, and family history.
| Results |
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The relationships between the magnitude of NITM in myopic Hong Kong Chinese children and tonic accommodative level, age-of-onset and magnitude of myopia, magnitude of parent and grandparent refractive error, and the drift in baseline accommodative level 50 seconds before the change in accommodative demand (i.e., between 250 and 300 seconds) were examined. Best subset regression analysis showed that 30.2% of the variance in the magnitude of NITM could be accounted for by a combination of all these features. However, most variance was accounted for by the drift in baseline accommodative level (24.2%), followed by the age of onset of myopia (5.3%).
| Discussion |
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There is also substantial evidence for an association between the onset of myopia and a decreased accommodative response to retinal blur,7 8 33 an effect which, by inducing regression of accommodation to an intermediate location,1 may in part account for the significantly reduced accommodative domain found in the juvenile myopes used in this study. In their comprehensive monograph on accommodation and myopia, Ong and Ciuffreda34 identify retinal blur as the principal component of NITM and consider its putative etiological role in myopia. The mechanisms proposed in later work on NITM by Ciuffreda and Wallis35 may be especially relevant to the juvenile myopes used in this study, as, given that it is a group characterized by rapidly progressing myopia and associated increase in lag of accommodation at near, it may be particularly susceptible to the time-integrated retinal defocus for both near and distance hypothesized by the authors. Both sources of retinal blur have potential myopigenic effects, owing to the authors further proposition that small amounts of retinal defocus emanating from accommodative dysfunction in the myopic eye, but not exceeding the eyes depth of focus, may not be sufficient to provide directional information, as blur defocus has no directional clues.36 The contribution of retinal blur to reflex accommodation is equivocal, however. For example, Kruger et al.37 have shown, measuring accommodation continuously under open-loop conditions, that both achromatic and chromatic directional stimuli specify ocular focus and drive reflex accommodation. The inability to demonstrate a significant dose effect in this study may be attributable to accommodative adaptation processes that attain, with sustained near fixation, a subthreshold level of retinal blur that is independent of the magnitude of accommodative stimulus but sufficient to cause NITM.
Whereas the substantial and persistent NITM induced by a relatively modest exposure to sustained near vision may be evidence that nearwork constitutes a potent environmental trigger for progression of myopia in the myopic eye of Hong Kong Chinese, of interest is whether the absence of NITM found in emmetropes precludes the role of NITM as a putative precursor to development of myopia.
In this context, a longitudinal study of propensity to NITM in the Hong Kong Chinese eye and its role in the genesis of myopia would be especially valuable, as epidemiologic studies show that the vision in at least 70% of the juvenile emmetropes used in this study will become significantly myopic over the next few years.21 Further, a parallel study in eyes of whites may elucidate whether pronounced NITM contributes to the higher degree and prevalence of myopia in Chinese populations.38
Such studies are likely, however, to present methodological difficulties, owing to the rapid progression of myopia evident in Hong Kong Chinese (MSE 1.47 ± 0.74 D per year for the sample used in this study). For this reason perhaps, neither the degree of myopia nor the family history of myopia showed a significant correlation with the magnitude of NITM found in the juvenile myopes. Of further interest for future work is the nature of NITM in hyperopia, a group rarely included in study samples but one that could be crucial to our full understanding of the etiology of myopia. Recently Ciuffreda and Lee39 have shown that not only are hyperopes markedly resistant to NITM but that they can exhibit substantial and sustained posttask hyperopic shifts of the order of -0.6 D after a continuous 4-hour task at their habitual reading distance.
The family history of refractive error reported in this study confirms prevalence levels previously published for corresponding generations40 41 and highlights the rapidly increasing prevalence of myopia in Hong Kong Chinese.21 22 The association between accommodation, nearwork, and the onset and development of myopia has figured in the literature over many years,1 and, more recently, nearwork has been proposed as a significant environmental influence in genetic and familial models of development of refractive error.42 43 44 We present evidence that propensity to substantial and sustained blur-driven NITM after nearwork is a feature of the young Hong Kong Chinese myopic eye and propose that this may exacerbate genetic predisposition of these eyes to progression of myopia.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication April 15, 2002; revised October 4 and December 17, 2002; accepted January 16, 2003.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: James S. Wolffsohn, Neurosciences Research Institute, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK; j.s.w.wolffsohn{at}aston.ac.uk.
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