Technical Note: Effect of contact lenses on measurement of the accommodation microfluctuations

Aim: Dynamic measurement of accommodation in subjects with myopia usually involves recording through soft contact lenses (CLs) to correct the refractive error. Conversely, dynamic accommodation measurement in emmetropic control subjects is generally undertaken without any corrective lenses. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether CL correction affects the measurement of accommodation microfluctuations using infrared refractometry, and whether this needs to be considered in studies which attempt to compare accommodation responses between the two groups. Methods: Ten young emmetropic subjects viewed a high contrast Maltese cross target monocularly using the right eye at a target vergence of 0 D. The subjects viewed the target under two conditions: with CL condition and without CL condition, where the subjects viewed the target with the eye only. Accommodation responses of the right eye were recorded continuously for 2 min at a sampling rate of 52 Hz using the Shin‐Nippon SRW‐5000 autorefractor. Results: No significant difference (two‐tailed paired t‐test, t9 = −1.499, p = 0.168) was found in mean accommodation response between the with CL (mean ± S.D. = −0.02 ± 0.24 D) and without CL conditions (mean ± S.D. = +0.01 ± 0.25 D). No significant (two‐tailed paired t‐test, t9 = 0.151, p = 0.883) difference in the magnitude of the accommodation microfluctuations was found between the with CL (mean ± S.D. = 0.162 ± 0.04 D) and without CL condition (mean ± S.D. = 0.169 ± 0.04 D). Power spectrum analysis revealed no differences in the characteristics of the microfluctuations waveform between the two conditions. A control experiment carried out on a subgroup of five subjects using a negative (−3 D) CL demonstrated that there was no significant effect of the dioptric power of the CL on the magnitude of the accommodation microfluctuations (anova: F3,15 = 0.254, p = 0.782). Conclusion: Thin soft CLs do not affect the magnitude or frequency characteristics of accommodation microfluctuations when measured using the Shin‐Nippon SRW‐5000.