OBJECTIVE To identify the genetic locus for X-linked nonsyndromic high myopia in a large Chinese family. METHODS Phenotypic information and DNA samples were collected from 19 individuals in a Chinese family; 7 had high myopia and 12 were unaffected. We performed a linkage scan on the X chromosome and sequenced several candidate genes. RESULTS High myopia in this family, presenting since ear...

INTRODUCTION It has been widely suggested that the prevalence of myopia is growing worldwide, and that the increases observed in East Asia, in particular, are sufficiently severe as to warrant the term "epidemic". Data in favour of a cohort effect in myopia prevalence are reviewed, with attention to significant shortcomings in the quality of available evidence. Additional factors contributing t...

Purpose To investigate the prevalence and related factors for myopia in school-aged children in the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Qingdao, Eastern China. Methods A total of 4890 (aged 10 to 15 years) students were initially enrolled in this study. 3753 (76.75%) students with completed refractive error and questionnaire data were analyzed. The children underwent a comprehensiv...

Myopia, or nearsightedness, is the most common eye disorder, resulting primarily from excess elongation of the eye. The etiology of myopia, although known to be complex, is poorly understood. Here we report the largest ever genome-wide association study (45,771 participants) on myopia in Europeans. We performed a survival analysis on age of myopia onset and identified 22 significant association...

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence of myopia and ocular biometry in population-based samples of ethnic Yi and Han people living in an inland rural community in China. METHODS A random cluster sampling strategy was used to select ethnic Han and Yi adults aged 50 years or older living in Yunnan. Refractive error was determined by subjective refraction and ocular biometric parameters, including...

Development of myopia is associated with large-scale changes in ocular tissue gene expression. Although differential expression of coding genes underlying development of myopia has been a subject of intense investigation, the role of non-coding genes such as microRNAs in the development of myopia is largely unknown. In this study, we explored myopia-associated miRNA expression profiles in the r...

In the face of an "epidemic" increase in myopia over the last decades and myopia prevalence predicted to reach 2.5 billion people by the end of this decade, there is an urgent need to develop effective and safe therapeutic interventions to slow down this "myopia booming" and prevent myopia-related complications and vision loss. Dopamine (DA) is an important neurotransmitter in the retina and me...

Chinese eye exercises have been implemented in China as an intervention for controlling children's myopia for over 50 years. This nested case-control study investigated Chinese eye exercises and their association with myopia development in junior middle school children. Outcome measures were the onset and progression of myopia over a two-year period. Cases were defined as 1. Myopia onset (cyclo...

BACKGROUND To retrospectively compare axial elongation in children with different degrees of myopia wearing spectacles and undergoing ortho-k treatment. METHODS The medical records of 128 patients who were fitted with spectacles or orthokeratology (ortho-k) lenses in our clinic between 2008 and 2009 were reviewed. Ortho-k group comprised 65 subjects and 63 subjects wearing spectacles were inc...

Accommodation may indirectly influence visually guided eye growth by affecting the retinal defocus signal used to guide growth. Specifically, increased lags of accommodation associated with low stimulus-response (S-R) function slopes will impose increased hyperopic blur on the retina and may induce axial elongation and myopia. The purpose of this study was (1) to measure accommodation in awake,...