Mechanisms

Is there ‘physiologic’ eye growth in myopia progression?

It’s known that emmetropizing children undergo axial eye growth of around 0.1mm per year. Is this amount of growth in myopes also ‘physiologic’? In this study, data from six myopia control clinical trials was analyzed to find the axial growth component which did not result in a change in refraction. For myopes, this ‘physiologic’ growth appears to be less than 0.1mm per year, which has implications for judging progression and treatment success.

Outdoor time works to delay myopia onset – proof from Taiwan

A country-wide intervention to increase outdoor time in 5-6 year olds resulted in the prevalence of myopia decreasing from 15% in the 2014 cohort (before the intervention) to 8% in 2016 cohort (exposed to the intervention for up to two years) and was stable for three years thereafter. Increasing outdoor time works! 

Choroidal thickening in response to DIMS spectacle lens wear

This study reported that children wearing DIMS spectacle lenses showed increased sub-foveal choroidal thickness than controls at 1 week which increased in the first 6 months and was maintained at 2 years. There was a correlation between more choroidal thickening and less axial elongation, but choroidal thickening only explained around 8% of the variation in axial length.

How outdoor time influences myopia prevention and control

There is general widespread accepted belief that increasing time spent outdoors can be protective against progression of myopia. Xiong et al set out to better understand the research by performing a meta-analysis of 51 clinical trials and longitudinal studies that investigated the relationship between time spent outdoors and the risk of either developing myopia, progression of existing myopia or a myopic shift in refractive error.

Evaluation of simulated orthokeratology in a soft contact lens for myopia control

Soft contact lenses designed to simulate the change in refraction optical pro-file from orthokeratology (OK) fail to slow axial eye elongation or change to refrac-tion over 1-year of wear in children, leading to suggestion that OK’s propensity to slow myopia progression may not be due to changes OK makes to optical profile.

Scleral cross-linking using Rose Bengal green light

In myopia development the sclera is at risk of deformation due to increasing axial length progression. This research investigates whether cross-linking treatment could be used to stiffen the sclera as a way to restrict axial eye elongation.