Pupillography of automated swinging flashlight test in amblyopia

Atsushi Miki¹, Atsuhiko Iijima², Mineo Takagi1, Kiyoshi Yaoeda¹, Tomoaki Usui¹, Shigeru Hasegawa¹, Haruki Abe¹, Takehiko Bando²

¹Department of Ophthalmology; ²Department of Physiology, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Abstract: Relative afferent pupillary defects (RAPDs) in amblyopia have been reported, and it is widely accepted that amblyopes can have an RAPD. We investigated whether or not this could be confirmed by the use of binocular pupillography. We examined twelve patients (6 males and 6 females, aged 7–57 years) with unilateral amblyopia associated with anisometropia and/or strabismus, using binocular infrared video pupillography (Newopto, Kawasaki, Japan). Eight normal subjects were also tested in the same manner. Two patients’ data had to be excluded because of poor recording quality. Only one patient with moderate anisometropic amblyopia was found to have reduced contraction amplitude in the amblyopic eye, and one patient with a borderline pupillary defect. The other amblyopes, some of whom showed even denser amblyopia, did not have a pupillary defect. This study has confirmed that only a small proportion of amblyopes have a reduced pupillary contraction amplitude in the affected eye, as established by pupillographic recordings, and even these amblyopes are not necessarily associated with dense amblyopia.

Keywords: relative afferent pupillary defect, amblyopia, pupillography