الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Amblyopia, also called lazy eye, is a disorder of sight in which the brain fails to process inputs from one eye and over time favors the other eye. It results in decreased vision in an eye that otherwise typically appears normal. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that can transiently alter the excitability of targeted brain areas in a polarity specific manner. Objectives: To detect the effect of tDCS on the measurable visual variables; clinical and electrophysiological, of amblyopic eyes. Methods: This is a randomized control trial carried out on 81 amblyopic patients in the age group 3-12 years. All patients presented with monocular amblyopia. They were divided in to 3 groups, each group received tDCS (a group received anodal tDCS, another one received cathodal tDCS and the last one received sham tDCS. Pattern visual evoked potentials and contrast sensitivity tests were carried out before, after and then after 1 week of tDCS. Results: The latency of P 100 of the amblyopic eye before and after and then after 1 week of anodal tDCS using check sizes 60’ and 15’ was significantly decreased (p< 0.001, p= 0.033, p< 0.001, p= 0.017) and increased significantly after cathodal tDCS (p< 0.001, p= 0.033, p< 0.001, p= 0.017). The amplitude of P 100 using check size 15’, maximum and minimum contrast sensitivity were significantly increased after and then after 1 week of anodal tDCS (p= 0.002, p= 0.003, p= 0.004, p< 0.001). The amplitude of P 100 using check sizes 60’ and 15’and maximum contrast sensitivity were significantly decreased after and then after 1 week of cathodal tDCS (p< 0.001, p= 0.007). Conclusion: Anodal tDCS is a promising modality for improvement of amblyopia. |