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远心设计软性双焦接触透镜是否可以减缓儿童近视进展。使用软双焦点接触透镜来操纵眼睛的周边光学器件是标准接触透镜的新颖用途，其可以防止儿童变得像否则那样近视。次要目标是确定软双焦点接触镜施加在周边视网膜上的近视散焦量是否以剂量依赖性方式与减缓的近视进展相关，并确定周边近视模糊是否起到局部或全局减缓眼睛生长的作用。这些重要的信息将使研究人员能够了解周边光学在调节眼睛生长中的作用，这最终可能导致光学信号的优化， 减缓近视进展。最终，这些信息可以用来设计光学设备，以防止幼儿近视的发生。减缓近视进展或最终预防近视发作可能仅在美国就影响约6000万儿童。虽然近视的后果很少危及视力，但近视患者的生活质量受到负面影响，治疗近视的保健费用是天文数字（1990年约为46亿美元）。国家眼科研究所认识到有必要“评估潜在治疗方法的疗效，以延迟近视的发作或减缓近视的进展，例如改变周边散焦的镜片。“使用一种常见的近视治疗方法（隐形眼镜）来潜在地减缓近视的进展，并了解调节眼睛生长的光学信号，这是一种非常新颖的方法来解决影响美国大部分人的问题。

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.