How are wavefronts used to measure accommodation? Why is this important?
The way to measure accommodation with an aberrometer is to make the internal fixation target start from the far point of a subject and then make the target approach over a custom defined distance and in a custom defined number of steps. At each step a wavefront measurement will be taken and by measuring the defocus, we get also a measure of the patient’s ability to accommodate. It is then possible to analyse the evolution of all the components of the optical quality of the eye with accommodation: sphere (with a direct link to presbyopia), cylinder and also higher-order aberrations. With a rapidly aging population in the West, presbyopia is a problem for more and more people. Having a tool that can measure this is an important step forward in eye care. Having a tool that also allows to measure any related aberrations to accommodation can provide valuable insight into a patient’s evolution of visual quality.
