Examination of corneal refractive power in Air Force pilot recruitment and discussion on its application value

Objective To discuss the value of applying corneal refractive power examination in Air Force pilot selection by analyzing the status of the check and the distribution of corneal astigmatism in candidates.Methods The refractive powers in corneal vertical and horizontal meridian were measured by Canon RK F1 full auto ref-keratometer for 5 172 eyes of 2 586 high school graduates who enrolled in final pilot selection.Mean corneal refractive power,corneal astigmatism,astigmatic axis and the difference of central refractive powers between two eyes of the same individual were calculated and the frequency distributions were described.The corneal astigmatism between two eyes of the same individual was compared.Results The mean corneal refractive power was (42.64± 1.23) D (range:37.95 to 47.31 D).The absolute value of the difference of corneal refractive powers between two eyes of the same individual was (0.20±0.18) D (range:0.00 to 2.53 D).The mean corneal astigmatism was (0.98±0.45) D (range:0.00 to 4.25 D).Astigmatism with rule,against rule and oblique astigmatism respectively took 96.83％,1.16％ and 2.01％.The difference of the corneal astigmatism between two eyes of the same individual was statistically significant (Z=-6.517,P＜0.05).The corneal astigmatism of left eyes was (1.00±0.46) D,a little higher than that of right eyes (0.96±0.45) D.Conclusion In Air Force pilot selection,corneal refractive power detected by full auto ref-keratometer provides a valuable clue in screening and identifying corneal refraction.Identifying if the cornea was done by kerato refractive surgery or keratoconus still needs other complemented methods.Most corneal astigmatism in healthy male aged from 16 to 20 yrs is the type with the rule.The individual corneal refractive power and astigmatism of eyes are symmetric to some extent. Key words: Refraction, ocular;  Cornea;  Astigmatism;  Refractometry;  Physical examination; Refractive power