Effectiveness and repeatability of eye-tracking-based test in strabismus measurement of children

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To assess the effectiveness of an eye-tracking-based test (ETBT) to measure eye deviation angle vs. a manual prism alternating cover test (PACT) in children with strabismus.

Design

The prospective, masked, cross-sectional study included 95 children aged 1.8 years and older. Eye deviation was tested twice by each of ETBT and PACT. Each subject underwent four strabismus measurements, two by the ETBT and two by PACT. In each test, subjects were fixated on accommodative targets at 50 cm, with habitual optical correction allowed. Masked examiners compared the manual PACT results with those of the ETBT.

Results

There was a high correlation (about 90%) between the ETBT and PACT. Repeatability of ETBT was higher than that of PACT (correlation coefficients of 0.99 and 0.91 respectively, p < .002). Age, strabismus type, and eye deviation measurement did not affect repeatability of ETBT. However, in PACT, results could not be correlated between the two examiners when the deviation was larger than 40 prism diopters.

Conclusions

The ETBT was effective in measuring eye deviation in children as young as 1.8 years. The ETBT showed higher repeatability compared to PACT.

KEYWORDS:

• Strabismus
• Test
• Measurement
• Repeatability
• Automatic

Acknowledgments

The study was supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China (82070997, 81900901, 81770957) and Shanghai Municipal Health Commission Program (201940485).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 82070997, 81900901 and 81770957] and Shanghai Municipal Health Commission Program [grant number 201940485].