%0 Journal Article %T Study of ocular aberrations with age %A Athaide %A Helaine Vinche Zampar %A Campos %A Mauro %A Costa %A Charles %J Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia %D 2009 %I Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia %R 10.1590/S0004-27492009000500003 %X introduction: aging has various effects on visual system. vision deteriorate, contrast sensitivity decreases and ocular aberrations apparently make the optical quality worse across the years. purpose: to prospective evaluate ocular aberrations along the ages. methods: three hundred and fifteen patients were examined, 155 were male (39.36%) and 160 were female (60.63%). ages ranged from 5 to 64 year-old, the study was performed from february to november, 2004. patients were divided into 4 age-groups according to ibge (instituto brasileiro de geografia e estat¨ªstica) classification: 68 patients from 5 to 14 year-old, 55 patients from 15 to 24 year-old, 116 from 25 to 44 year-old and 76 from 45 to 67 year-old. all patients had the following characteristics: best corrected visual acuity > 20/25, emmetropia or spherical equivalent < 3.50 sd, refractive astigmatism < 1.75 cd on cycloplegic refraction, normal ophthalmologic exam and no previous ocular surgeries. this protocol was approved by federal university of s£¿o paulo institutional review board. total optical aberrations were measured by h-s sensor ladarwave£¿ custom cornea wavefront system (alcon laboratories inc, orlando, fla, usa) and were statistically analysed. corneal aberrations were calculated using ct-view software version 6.89 (sarver and associates, celebration, fl, usa). lens aberrations were calculated by subtraction. results: high-order (0.32 e 0.48 ¦Ìm) and ocular spherical aberrations (0.02 e 0.26 ¦Ìm) increased respectively in child and middle age groups. high order (0.27 ¦Ìm) and corneal spherical aberrations (0.05 ¦Ìm) did not show changes with age. lens showed a statistically significant spherical aberration increase (from -0.02 to 0.22 ¦Ìm). vertical (from 0.10 to -0.07 ¦Ìm) and horizontal coma (from 0.01 to -0.12 ¦Ìm) presented progressively negative values with aging. conclusion: high-order and spherical aberrations increased with age due to lens contribution. the cornea did not affect significantly cha %K ocular physiological phenomena %K corneal topography %K aging [physiology] %K refractive errors [physiopathology] %K refraction %K ocular [physiology] %K diagnostic technique %K opthalmologic %K visual acuity [physiology] %K lens %K crystalline [physiology]. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0004-27492009000500003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en