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Graham E. Quinn, MD, MSCE; Ellie L. Francis, OD, PhD; Karen S. Nipper, MD; D. Ian Flitcroft, MD, PhD; Gui-shuang Ying, MS; Renee C. Rees, PhD; Gregor F. Schmid, PhD; Maureen G. Maguire, PhD; Richard A. Stone, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2003;121:985-990.

Objective  To determine the feasibility, reliability, and validity of using partial coherence interferometry, a noncontact method that detects interference patterns from various layers of the eye, to measure axial length in young children.

Methods  The right eye of 64 subjects (mean age, 8.4 y; age range, 3.4-12.9 y; best-corrected visual acuity 20/30) was measured. Subjects fixated monocularly on the collimated light pattern from a laser diode (the alignment beam) and the operator used a video monitor to align the corneal reflection in the optical path. Axial length was measured during an 0.8-second scan using interference patterns from a collimated short coherence superluminescence diode aligned coaxially with the laser diode. Five series of 16 readings each were obtained. The average axial length for each of the 5 series of readings was calculated.

Main Outcome Measure  Axial length.

Results  Within-subject precision of axial length measurements was high, with an overall SE of measurement of 8 µm for individual subjects across the 5 sessions (95% confidence interval, ±16 µm). Subgroup analysis showed that sex, age, spherical equivalent, and refractive error exerted statistically significant effects on precision, but all of the differences among subgroups were 3 µm or less and likely to be insignificant clinically. Axial length measured by partial coherence interferometry varied systematically, with factors known to influence eye length (ie, age and refractive error), further validating the measurement method.

Conclusion  The partial coherence interferometry technique provides reproducible, extraordinarily precise eye length measurements in young children and should enable novel approaches to study eye growth and refractive development.

From the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa (Drs Quinn, Francis, Nipper, and Stone); Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute–University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (Drs Quinn, Francis, Rees, Maguire, and Stone and Mr Ying); The Children's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland (Dr Flitcroft); and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Philadelphia (Dr Schmid). The authors have no proprietary interest in the partial coherence interferometer.

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