This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Low astigmatism not beneficial for presbyopia, study concludes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
WASHINGTON — Intermediate distance visual acuity and refractive quality of life are slightly better in presbyopic patients with spherical low myopia than patients with low amounts of astigmatism, a prospective study concluded.
Howard I. Savage, MD, and researchers at the Department of Ophthalmology, George Washington University, performed the masked study to investigate whether low myopic astigmatism is beneficial to visual acuity, stereopsis or quality of life in presbyopic patients.
After a comprehensive baseline examination, 15 patients were randomly cycled through three pairs of soft contact lenses that maintained a spherical equivalent of –0.5 D while providing either no astigmatism or 1 D of with-the-rule or against-the-rule astigmatism.
After 1 week of use, near and distance visual acuity results were similar across the three arms. However, intermediate logMAR visual acuity was better for the spherical arm than either astigmatic arm (–0.06 D spherical, +0.01 D with-the-rule, +0.02 D against-the-rule).
Stereoacuity was significantly better in patients with against-the-rule astigmatism rather than with-the-rule astigmatism (50 sec. vs. 102 sec., P = .01). Near stereopsis was best in the against-the-rule arms, but did not improve near visual acuity or quality of life, the authors noted.
Quality of life survey also showed patients preferred no astigmatism rather than with-the-rule astigmatism (P = .05).
The study was published in the May issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.