The clinical profile of moderate amblyopia in children younger than 7 years

Abstract

Objective: To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of a cohort of children with moderate amblyopia participating in the Amblyopia Treatment Study 1, a randomized trial comparing atropine and patching. Methods: The children enrolled were younger than 7 years and had strabismic, anisometropic, or combined strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia. Visual acuity, measured with a standardized testing protocol using single-surround HOTV optotypes, was 20/40 to 20/100 in the amblyopic eye, with an intereye acuity difference of 3 or more logMAR lines. There were 419 children enrolled, 409 of whom met these criteria and were included in the analyses. Results: The mean age of the 409 children was 5.3 years. The cause of the amblyopia was strabismus in 38%, anisometropia in 37%, and both strabismus and anisometropia in 24%. The mean visual acuity of the amblyopic eyes (approximately 20/60) was similar among the strabismic, anisometropic, and combined groups (P=.24), but visual acuity of the sound eyes was worse in the strabismic group compared with the anisometropic group (P