CANBERRA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have developed a faster and cheaper test for the world's most common vision condition.
The team from Flinders University in South Australia (SA) on Wednesday revealed that they have discovered a new method of identifying myopia.
Otherwise known as short or near-sightedness, myopia can damage the eye and even cause blindness if undiagnosed.
They found that optical coherence tomography (OCT), a device that is already available in most optometric practices, can find irregularities in the eye caused by myopia.
In addition to being more widely available, OCT is also significantly cheaper than alternative methods for identifying myopia such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
"Our work uses the OCT and finds irregularities at this scale that correlate with the size of the eye, and therefore the degree of myopia," Flinders University eye specialist Stewart Lake said in a media release.
"This may help monitor, measure, and explore the effects of myopia and how it leads to vision loss."
Approximately 22 percent of the global population, or 1.5 billion people, suffer from myopia.
While it can be corrected by glasses or LASIK surgery it remains a global epidemic.
Estimates forecast that up to 5 billion people will have myopia by 2050, 1 billion of whom will have high myopia.
The severity of myopia is measured by the strength of the lens required to correct the patient's eyesight.
According to the team from Flinders University, high myopia increases the risk of developing glaucoma, retinal detachment, macular degeneration and cataracts - all of which can cause irreversible vision loss.
