Background and purpose: To measure the Accommodative Convergence (PD)/Accommodation ratio (D) (AC/A) in a cohort of visually normal participants using common clinical methods.
Patients and methods: AC/A ratios of 50 visually normal subjects were measured using the distance gradient (DG), near gradient (NG), gradient using synoptophore, (SG) and heterophoria (H) methods in line with current clinical practice.
Results: Median AC/A ratios for NG, DG, SG, and H were 2.0 (IQR 2.0), 1.0 (IQR 0.6), 1.0 (IQR 0.6), and 5.0 (IQR 1.7), respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in ratios calculated between all methods in the same subjects (p < 0.05). There were differences in DG vs NG, DG vs H, SG vs H, and NG vs H (p < 0.05); only DG vs SG did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). Lens power toleration was found to affect AC/A ratio in DG (p < 0.05) and latent deviation was significantly associated with (p < 0.05) AC/A ratio in NG.
Conclusion: Calculated AC/A ratios in this cohort were lower than historically cited normal (3-5:1) in all gradient methods. There were differences in AC/A values in the same subjects calculated with different gradient methods, indicating that these methods are not interchangeable and a universal normal range should not be applied for all methods.
Keywords: Accommodative convergence; gradient method; heterophoria method; normal AC/A ratio.