Wen-Ling Liao

Background/Objectives: To develop a new Virtual Reality (VR) system software for measuring ocular deviation in strabismus patients. Methods: This prospective study included subjects with basic-type exotropia (XT) and non-refractive accommodative esotropia (ET). Ocular deviation was measured using the alternate prism cover test (APCT) and two VR-based methods: target offset (TO) and a newly developed camera rotation (CR) method. Results: A total of 28 subjects were recruited (5 cases were excluded for preliminary testing and 5 for not meeting inclusion criteria). Among the 18 included patients, 10 (66.7%) had XT and 5 (33.3%) had ET. The median age was 21.5 years (IQR 17 to 25). The mean age was 22.3 years (range: 9–46), with 5 (27.8%) having manifest strabismus and 12 (61.1%) measured while wearing glasses. VR-based methods (TO and CR) showed comparable results to APCT for deviation angle measurements (p = 0.604). Subgroup analysis showed no significant differences in ET patients (all p > 0.05). In XT patients, both TO and CR underestimated deviation angles compared to APCT (p = 0.008 and p = 0.001, respectively), but no significant difference was observed between the two methods (p = 0.811). Linear regression showed CR had a stronger correlation with APCT than TO (R² = 0.934 vs. 0.874). Conclusions: This newly developed VR system software, incorporating the CR method, provides a reliable approach for measuring ocular deviation. By shifting the entire visual scene rather than just the target, it lays a strong foundation for immersive diagnostic and therapeutic VR applications.

This prospective pilot study aimed to develop and evaluate a VR–based screening tool for assessing distance fusional vergence amplitude in healthy orthotropic young adults aged 18 to 30 years. A VR–based balloon-hitting game was used to measure hitting deviation angles and total vergence amplitudes under five conditions: control (0 prism diopter [PD]), inward image rotation for 10 and 20 PD (negative fusional vergence [NFV] 10/20 groups), and outward image rotation for 10 and 20 PD (positive fusional vergence [PFV] 10/20 groups). Of the 20 subjects recruited, one was excluded due to esotropia, leaving 19 participants (mean age: 22.2 ± 2.2 years; 13 wore glasses and 3 were female). In the control group, the mean hitting deviation was 0.65 ± 0.25 PD. The PFV 10 PD group showed similar deviation (0.67 ± 0.25 PD, p = 0.67), while the PFV 20 PD group had a significant increase (1.71 ± 2.0 PD, p = 0.04). NFV groups demonstrated greater deviations (NFV 10 PD: 3.40 ± 2.05 PD; NFV 20 PD: 9.9 ± 2.40 PD, both p < 0.01). Total vergence amplitudes were 8.65, 16.48, 6.60, and 10.05 PD for PFV 10, PFV 20, NFV 10, and NFV 20 PD, respectively. The VR–based tool enables standardized, efficient assessment of fusional vergence and shows promise for large-scale screening.