Presbyopia is often the first age-related, degenerative disorder that affects peoples’ everyday quality of life.  The condition, that affects nearly everyone over age 50, is characterized by the loss of the eye’s accommodative ability over time. 

Before wavefront aberrometry, dynamic retinoscopy was the only choice to assess accommodative ability objectively.  Unfortunately, it inherently lacks the ability to take into account the effect of asymmetric aberrations, including coma and trefoil, have on vision.

It is equally unable to provide information on the potentially significant variations in higher-order aberrations during accommodation that can be caused by factors including pupil size.  Because pupil size naturally decreases during accommodation, thereby providing pseudo-accommodation, measurement results that do not take this into account can be inconclusive.

The irx3™ Wavefront Aberrometer is the ideal tool for precise, objective measurement of the patient’s accommodative response.  Its ability to measure the ensemble of the subject’s ocular aberrations simultaneously with other factors including pupil myosis enables it to provide unique insight into how aberrations change during accommodation.  This information can dramatically help in accommodation analysis as well as presbyopia assessment.

The device uses patented wavefront analysis technology alongside a proprietary method for assessing accommodation that, together, enable practitioners eliminate the subjectivity inherent to other methods and to objectively evaluate their patients’ accommodative ability in seconds.

The method used by the irx3 is simple and effective.  Wavefront measurements are taken at user-defined intervals during the movement of an internal fixation target.  Because the device knows the exact position of the patient’s retina in relation to the fixation target, the irx3’s proprietary software is able to objectively calculate the accommodative response at each interval. The precise control of the parameters of the movement (amplitude of the steps, time to wait between steps) allows the practitioner to optimize the procedure for each patient.

The series of precise wavefront measurements is displayed in familiar diopter units on a bar graph, showing the evolution of the eye’s refractive errors during accommodation.  For the practitioner:

• assessing accommodation, and therefore presbyopia, becomes fast and objective
• optimizing correction to take accommodation into account is made easier
• analyzing accommodative refractive components in vivo is made possible (new generation of IOL’s, multifocal contact lenses,..)

Click on the linked text to view the irx3 specifications page or to download our Medical Devices product brochure.  If you would like more information or would like to arrange for a demonstration, please contact us by telephone at +33 (0)1 64 86 15 66 or by e-mail by clicking here.