Higher-Order Aberrations in Myopic Eyes

Purpose: to evaluate the correlation between refractive error and higher-orderaberrations (hoas) in patients with myopic astigmatism.methods: hoas were measured using the zywave ii aberrometer over a 6 mm pupil.correlations between hoas and myopia, astigmatism, and age were analyzed.results: one hundred and twenty-six eyes of 63 subjects with mean age of 26.4±5.9 yearswere studied. mean spherical equivalent refractive error and refractive astigmatismwere -4.94±1.63 d and 0.96±1.06 d, respectively. the most common higher-orderaberration was primary horizontal trefoil with mean value of 0.069±0.152 ìm followedby spherical aberration (-0.064±0.130 ìm) and primary vertical coma (-0.038±0.148ìm). as the order of aberration increased from third to fifth, its contribution to totalhoa decreased: 53.9% for third order, 31.9% for fourth order, and 14.2% for fifthorder aberrations. significant correlations were observed between spherical equivalentrefractive error and primary horizontal coma (r=0.231, p=0.022), and root mean square(rms) of spherical aberration (r=0.213, p=0.031); between astigmatism and rms oftotal hoa (r=0.251, p=0.032), rms of fourth order aberration (r=0.35, p<0.001), andprimary horizontal coma (r=0.314, p=0.004). spherical aberration (r=0.214, p=0.034)and secondary vertical coma (r=0.203, p=0.031) significantly increased with age.conclusion: primary horizontal trefoil, spherical aberration and primary verticalcoma are the predominant higher-order aberrations in eyes with myopic astigmatism.