Factors Influencing the Prevalence of Amblyopia in Children with Anisometropia Abd-Allah Tarek Mohammad M., El-Shazly Amany Abd-El-Fattah*, Abd-El-Alim Ahmed Ibrahim Ophthalmology Department Ain Shams Faculty of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt *Corressponding Author: shazlyamany@yahoo.co.uk
Online published on 20 July, 2012. Abstract Objectives The aim of this work was to evaluate the factors that can influence the prevalence of amblyopia in children with anisometropia. By assessment of these factors we could help in reduction of amblyopia in anisometropic cases. Methods We included 600 children with age between 6 and 12 years, they were 330 males and 270 females. They had anisometropic amblyopia with a difference in the refractive errors between the eyes of at least two diopters (D) The astigmatic group was an exception including any degree of difference. The type of anisometropia (myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism), degree of anisometropia, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of the amblyopic eye at the time of initial examination, BCVA differences between sound and amblyopic eyes were investigated. Results The mean age of included children was 9.37 ± 2.12 years, they were 330 males & 270 females (M: F ratio = 11:9). The prevalence of anisometropic amblyopia was 56.67 % (340 cases out of 600). We found that amblyopia is more severe and more frequent in hypermetropic anisometropia (29.41%) and astigmatic anisometropia with the cylinder power difference was <2 D (20.59%) or >2 D (32.35%) than it is myopic anisometropia (17.65%). In our study, children with higher magnitudes of anisometropia, and line acuity difference between both eyes had a higher prevalence of amblyopia. Through multi-regression analysis, we found that line acuity difference between both eyes was the only parameter that affects the right best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Conclusion We can conclude that best corrected VA and presence of amblyopia are related to differences in VA of two eyes (defined in our study as a difference in VA of at least 2 logMAR lines), the amount of anisometropia and type of refractive error difference (hyperopic, myopic, or astigmatic) between the two eyes. Top |