Soft Bifocal Contact Lens Myopia Control - Study Chair

描述(由申请人提供)：这个项目的主要目标是确定一种商业上可用的具有距离中心设计的软双焦点隐形眼镜是否可以减缓儿童近视的进展。使用柔软的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其他情况下那样近视。次要目标是确定软性双焦点隐形眼镜施加在周边视网膜上的近视散焦量是否以剂量依赖的方式与减缓近视进展有关，并确定周边近视模糊是否会局部或整体减缓眼睛的生长。这些重要的信息将使研究人员了解外围光学在调节眼睛生长方面的作用，这最终可能导致光学信号的优化 近视进展缓慢。最终，这些信息可以被用来设计光学设备，以防止幼儿近视的发病。仅在美国，减缓近视进展或最终阻止近视发病就可能影响大约6000万儿童。虽然近视的后果很少威胁视力，但近视患者的生活质量受到负面影响，治疗近视的医疗费用是天文数字(1990年约为46亿美元)。国家眼科研究所认识到有必要“评估延缓近视发病或减缓近视进展的潜在治疗方法的有效性，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)可能会减缓近视的进展，并了解调节眼睛生长的光学信号，这是解决这个在美国影响到很大一部分人的问题的非常新颖的方法。

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.