Soft Bifocal Contact Lens Myopia Control - Study Chair

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的主要目标是确定市售的具有距离中心设计的软性双焦点隐形眼镜是否可以减缓儿童近视的进展。使用软性双焦点隐形眼镜来控制眼睛的周边光学是标准隐形眼镜的一种新用途，它可以防止儿童变得像以前那样近视。次要目的是确定软双焦点隐形眼镜对周围视网膜造成的近视离焦量是否以剂量依赖的方式与近视进展减慢有关，并确定周围近视模糊是否对局部或整体眼睛生长起减缓作用。这些重要的信息将使研究人员能够了解周围光学在调节眼睛生长中的作用，这可能最终导致光学信号的优化

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary goal of this project is to determine whether a commercially available soft bifocal contact lens with a distance-center design can slow myopia progression in children. Using soft bifocal contact lenses to manipulate the peripheral optics of the eye is a novel use for a standard contact lens that may keep children from becoming as nearsighted as they would otherwise. Secondary goals are to determine whether the amount of myopic defocus imposed on the peripheral retina by soft bifocal contact lenses is associated in a dose-dependent manner with slowed myopic progression and to determine whether peripheral myopic blur acts to slow eye growth locally or globally. These important pieces of information will enable investigators to learn about the role of peripheral optics for regulating eye growth, which could ultimately lead to optimization of optical signals to slow myopia progression. Ultimately, the information could be used to design optical devices to prevent the onset of myopia in young children. Slowing myopia progression or eventually preventing myopia onset could potentially affect approximately 60 million children in the United States alone. While the consequences of myopia are rarely sight-threatening, the quality of life for myopic patients is negatively affected, and the health care costs to treat myopia are astronomical (approximately $4.6 billion in 1990). The National Eye Institute recognizes the need to "evaluate the efficacy of potential treatments for delaying the onset or for slowing the progression of myopia, such as lenses that alter peripheral defocus." Using a common treatment of myopia (contact lenses) to potentially slow myopia progression and to learn about optical signals that regulate eye growth is a very novel approach to solving a problem that affects a large proportion of people in the United States.