Changes in corneal wavefront aberrations with aging

PURPOSE. To investigate whether corneal wavefront aberrations vary with agi ng. METHODS. One hundred two eyes of 102 normal subjects were evaluated with vi deokeratography. The data were decomposed using Taylor and Zernike polynomi als to calculate the monochromatic aberrations of the cornea for both small (S-mm) and large (7-mm) pupils. RESULTS. For a 3-mm pupil, the amount of total aberrations (Spearman rank c orrelation coefficient r(s) = 0.145; P = 0.103) and spherical-like aberrati ons (r(s) = -0.068; P = 0.448) did not change with aging, whereas comalike aberrations exhibited a weak but statistically significant correlation with age (r(s) = 0.256; P = 0.004). For a 7-mm pupil, total aberrations (r(s) = 0.552; P < 0.001) and comalike aberrations (r(s) = 0.561; P < 0.001) signi ficantly increased with aging, but spherical-like aberrations showed no age -related changes (r(s) = 0.124; P = 0.166). Simulated pupillary dilation fr om 3 mm to 7 mm caused a 38.0 +/- 28.5-fold increase in the total aberratio ns, and the extent of increases significantly correlated with age (r(s) = 0 .354; P < 0.001). Pupillary dilation influenced the comalike aberrations mo re in the older subjects than in the younger subjects (r(s) = 0.243; P = 0. 006), but such age dependence was not found for spherical-like aberrations (r(s) = 0.141; P = 0.115). CONCLUSIONS. Comalike aberrations of the cornea correlate with age, implyin g that the corneas become less symmetrical along with aging. Spherical-like aberrations do not vary significantly with aging. Pupillary dilation marke dly increases wavefront aberrations, and those effects are more prominent i n older subjects than in younger subjects.