Longitudinal evidence of crystalline lens thinning in XXXX .

@entity1 @entity851 @entity2516 @entity735 @entity1714
PURPOSE: Most earlier studies indicated that the eye's crystalline lens grows continually throughout life, but cross-sectional results of crystalline lens thinning during childhood have been reported. The authors investigated crystalline lens thickness in childhood using cross-sectional and longitudinal data. METHODS: The Orinda Longitudinal Study of @entity1714 is a community-based study of normal eye growth and @entity1714 development in school-age @entity1 . During a 1-to 3-year period, A-scan ultrasonographic lens thickness measurements of 869 @entity1 6 through 14 years of age were analyzed. RESULTS: On average, between the ages of 6 and 10 years, the crystalline lens thins in its axial dimension by almost 0.2 mm. This thinning can be depicted by a cubic model. In this sample, the @entity1 with @entity1714 had thinner crystalline lenses than the @entity1 with emmetropia of the same age. CONCLUSIONS: This article provides the first longitudinal evidence that the crystalline lens thins during the period of coordinated ocular growth between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Further, it shows that lens thickness is associated with @entity2516 . Thinner crystalline lenses in @entity1 with @entity1714 may result from one of two underlying mechanisms: Either the crystalline lens exhausts its ability to compensate for axial elongation after undergoing accelerated lens thinning before the onset of @entity1714 , or the crystalline lens in the @entity735 may be thinner throughout childhood, during which it thins at a rate consistent with other @entity2516 . If @entity851 , more complex, visually guided feedback loops may not be needed to explain the normal eye growth that results in emmetropization.
