The clinical profile of amblyopia in children under 3 years of age

Abstract

Amblyopia is a loss of vision in one or both eyes caused by conditions that affect the normal development of vision, including strabismus, anisometropia, a combination of strabismus and amblyopia or, less commonly, visual deprivation. In 2002 the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Network (PEDIG) described characteristics of amblyopic children ages 3–6 years by summarizing the baseline data from amblyopic children with strabismus, anisometropia, or both enrolled in a treatment study at 47 US centers.1 However, there are few published data on the characteristics of amblyopic children under 3 years of age. The primary aim of this study was to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of a cohort of amblyopic children under 3 years of age with strabismus, anisometropia or both. A secondary aim was to compare these characteristics with those from the previously described PEDIG cohort of 3- to 6-year-old amblyopic children.1