Detecting Preschoolers at Risk for Vision Loss
A simple 3-second office screening test may enable pediatricians to identify amblyopia, or vision loss in one eye, in children as young as two, report ophthalmologists at Children's Hospital Boston in the April Archives of Ophthalmology. Amblyopia, also known as "lazy eye," affects 3 to 5 percent of all children and is the leading cause of vision loss in childhood. Because preschoolers cannot reliably communicate or read eye charts, amblyopia often goes undetected at the time when it is most correctable.
The new screening instrument, known as the Pediatric Vision Scanner, is designed to be easy for pediatricians and pediatric nurses to use. It looks like a hand-held camera and displays a visual target: a blinking light inside a bull's eye. As the child looks at this target, the device scans the eyes' retinas with a low-power laser to take a series of five readings of the eyes' alignment and ability of both eyes to focus on the target simultaneously.
This has potential for child screening by public health departments.