Often considered a “pandemic” in its own right, myopia is a major health concern around the world.
This is especially true in Asia, where myopia rates surpass those in the West.
Therefore, at the 36th Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Virtual Congress (APAO 2021),
highlights from the 2nd Asia-Pacific Myopia Society (APMS) Congress were presented, covering important updates in myopia measurement and diagnosis, pathology of related myopic conditions, and new treatment paradigms.
Consider cycloplegic refraction “There’s lots of new data, but most of it has been taken without cycloplegia … which is the gold standard for myopia measurement,” began Prof.
Ian Morgan, from the Australian National University in Canberra, during his presentation on New Data on Myopia Prevalence ลาวสามัคคี.
“These methods overestimate the prevalence of myopia and emmetropia and underestimate the prevalence of hyperopia.”
Although there are many gaps in the evidence, Prof. Morgan says this doesn’t change the myopia and high myopia epidemic in East and Southeast Asia.
That said, there have also been some positive developments in the understanding of myopia.
“Despite non-cycloplegic refractions, another thing we’ve discovered especially in data from China, Myopia Remains
is that the increase of myopia during the school years is due to educational exposures almost exclusively — and not due to increasing age,” said Prof. Morgan.
See the light: Myopia interventions Next, Dr. Pei-Chang Wu, from Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital,
Taiwan, shared data from different studies that assessed the impact of time outdoors and myopia Myopia Remains.
He said that there is strong evidence for increasing time outdoors as a myopia intervention — and near work is a contributing factor as well:
“Every one diopter-hour of near work per week appeared to increase the odds of myopia by 2%.” Based on this idea that light exposure can prevent myopia progression, Prof.
Mingguang He, from the University of Melbourne, Australia, introduced a new device involving repeated low-level red light treatment to control myopia.
He presented results from a 12-month randomized clinical trial on the homeuse device used in two three-minute sessions daily (five days per week).
“This is able to control 70-80% of myopia and the efficacy improves with better compliance.
When compliance was more than 75%, efficacy was 90% for the SER (spherical equivalent refraction),” he said, adding that there was no structural or functional damage.
Other pathologies and complications “Myopia maculopathy is very important to consider because it is often bilateral and irreversible, and it frequently affects patients in their productive years,” said
For more information: ลาวสามัคคี
