Clinical and Functional Imaging Changes Induced from Vision Therapy in Patients with Convergence Insufficiency

Tara L. Alvarez, Mitchell Scheiman, Elio M. Santos, Cristian Morales, Chang Yaramothu, John Vito D'Antonio-Bertagnolli, Suril Gohel, Bharat B. Biswal, Xiaobo Li

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Office-Based Vergence/Accommodative Therapy (OBVAT) is an effective treatment for convergence insufficiency (CI) and remediates symptoms in about 75% of patients. Hence, the study of CI patients can serve as a systems-level model to understand the neural mechanisms evoked from rehabilitation. Symptomatic young adult CI patients (N=25) participated in 12 hours of OBVAT and were compared to 25 binocularly normal controls (BNC) using unpaired t-tests. CI patients have significantly lower near point of convergence and positive fusional vergence and were more symptomatic compared to BNC (p<0.0001). Using paired t-tests, significant differences (p<0.0001) were observed between CI patients' baseline and post-OBVAT measurements where the near point of convergence decreased, positive fusional vergence increased, and the results from the Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS) decreased. Using paired t-tests, the mean beta weights of the functional activity significantly increased for the frontal eye fields (p<0.01) and the oculomotor vermis (p<0.05) for CI patients post-OBVAT compared to baseline measurements. These data demonstrate that OBVAT increases functional activity within the brain and improves clinical function and visual symptoms in CI patients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2019 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages104-109
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538613115
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2019
Event41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2019 - Berlin, Germany
Duration: Jul 23 2019Jul 27 2019

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
ISSN (Print)1557-170X

Conference

Conference41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2019
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityBerlin
Period7/23/197/27/19

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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