Ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy for measurement of ocular refractive error

The aims of this study were

1. To assess the agreement between ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy and neutralization retinoscopy for measurement of refractive error.

2. To develop calibration scale for various commercially available retinoscope (Heine, keeler, Welchallyn) for ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy.

In this prospective cross-sectional study the ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy was done on 300 eyes of 150 patients after cycloplegia.

The ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy was followed by standard retinoscopy on all the patients.

For cycloplegiacyclopentolate,tropicamide combination was used.

An accurately calibrated HEINE BETA 200 streak retinoscope was used for all the measurement.

Refractive errors obtained by ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy and neutralization retinoscopy had a good level of agreement for mild to moderate hyperopia(ILA:1.9623)followed by mild to moderate hyperopic astigmatism(ILA:1.9897),mild to moderate myopia(ILA:2.347),mild to moderate myopic astigmatism(ILA:2.383),high hyperopic astigmatism(ILA:2.817), high hyperopia(ILA:3.431)& high myopia(ILA: 4.259).

The analysis of this study revealed there is no statistically significant difference in refractive error obtained by ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy and neutralization retinoscopy for different type of refractive error (P>0.005) (except for high myopic astigmatism P<0.005).

Ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy has good level of agreement with neutralization retinoscopy for measurement of mild to moderate amount of hyperopia, myopia and hyperopic astigmatism.

Techniques of ophthalmoscopic retinoscopy may be useful in estimating the amount of refractive error in children who object to loose lenses held close to them.