Optometry Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Optometry, including details on myopia, optometric practice, therapy.

Delayed mfERG responses in myopia.

Chen JC, Brown B, Schmid KL

Centre for Health Research-Optometry, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, Qld 4059, Australia. jc.chen@qut.edu.au

It has been suggested that changes in the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) responses in myopes are primarily due to the increased axial length that accompanies myopia development. We investigated the characteristics of mfERG responses between emmetropes and myopes and determined the contribution of axial length to the mfERG data in 30 subjects (10 emmetropes and 20 myopes) using VERIS I. The amplitude and implicit time of the first positive peak (P1) of the first-order kernel were analyzed. We found that P1 implicit time in myopes was significantly longer by 1.3-3.1 ms than that of the emmetropes and this was not explained by the myopes having greater axial lengths than the emmetropes. Axial length contributed to 15% of the implicit time total variance while refractive error accounted for 27%. Delayed mfERG responses observed in myopes were not attributable to the anatomical change that accompanies myopia and may suggest underlying differences in retinal function that result from being myopic.

Published 17 January 2006 in Vision Res, 46(8): 1221-9.
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