During an eye examination, a test such as cover testing or the Hirschberg test is used in the diagnosis and measurement of strabismus and its impact on vision. Retinal birefringence scanning can be used for screening of young children for eye misalignment. A Cochrane review to examine different types of diagnosis test found only one study. This study used a photoscreener which was found to have high specificity (accurate in identifying those without the condition) but low sensitivity (inaccurate in identifying those with the condition). Several classifications are made when diagnosing strabismus. Latency Strabismus can be manifest (-tropia) or latent (-phoria). A manifest deviation, or heterotropia (which may be eso-, exo-, hyper-, hypo-, cyclotropia or a combination of these), is present while the person views a target binocularly, with no occlusion of either eye. The person is unable to align the gaze of each eye to achieve fusion. A latent deviation, or heterophoria (eso-, exo-, hyper-, hypo-, cyclophoria or a combination of these), is only present after binocular vision has been interrupted, typically by covering one eye. This type of person can typically maintain fusion despite the misalignment that occurs when the positioning system is relaxed. Intermittent strabismus is a combination of both of these types, where the person can achieve fusion, but occasionally or frequently falters to the point of a manifest deviation. Onset Strabismus may also be classified based on time of onset, either congenital, acquired, or secondary to another pathological process. Many infants are born with their eyes slightly misaligned, and this is typically outgrown by six to 12 months of age. Acquired and secondary strabismus develop later. The onset of accommodative esotropia, an overconvergence of the eyes due to the effort of accommodation, is mostly in early childhood. Acquired non-accommodative strabismus and secondary strabismus are developed after normal binocular vision has developed. In adults with previously normal alignment, the onset of strabismus usually results in double vision. Any disease that causes vision loss may also cause strabismus, but it can also result from any severe and/or traumatic injury to the affected eye. Sensory strabismus is strabismus due to vision loss or impairment, leading to horizontal, vertical or torsional misalignment or to a combination thereof, with the eye with poorer vision drifting slightly over time. Most often, the outcome is horizontal misalignment. Its direction depends on the person's age at which the damage occurs: people whose vision is lost or impaired at birth are more likely to develop esotropia, whereas people with acquired vision loss or impairment mostly develop exotropia. In the extreme, complete blindness in one eye generally leads to the blind eye reverting to an anatomical position of rest. Although many possible causes of strabismus are known, among them severe and/or traumatic injuries to the afflicted eye, in many cases no specific cause can be identified. This last is typically the case when strabismus is present since early childhood. Results of a U.S. cohort study indicate that the incidence of adult-onset strabismus increases with age, especially after the sixth decade of life, and peaks in the eighth decade of life, and that the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with adult-onset strabismus is approximately 4%. Laterality Strabismus may be classified as unilateral if the one eye consistently deviates, or alternating if either of the eyes can be seen to deviate. Alternation of the strabismus may occur spontaneously, with or without subjective awareness of the alternation. Alternation may also be triggered by various tests during an eye exam. Unilateral strabismus has been observed to result from a severe or traumatic injury to the affected eye. Direction and latency Horizontal deviations are classified into two varieties, using prefixes: eso- describes inward or convergent deviations towards the midline, while exo- describes outward or divergent misalignment. Vertical deviations are also classified into two varieties, using prefixes: hyper- is the term for an eye whose gaze is directed higher than the fellow eye, while hypo- refers to an eye whose gaze is directed lower. Finally, the prefix cyclo- refers to torsional strabismus, which occurs when the eyes rotate around the anterior-posterior axis to become misaligned and is quite rare. These five directional prefixes are combined with -tropia (if manifest) or -phoria (if latent) to describe various types of strabismus. For example, a constant left hypertropia exists when a person's left eye is always aimed higher than the right. A person with an intermittent right esotropia has a right eye that occasionally drifts toward the person's nose, but at other times is able to align with the gaze of the left eye. A person with a mild exophoria can maintain fusion during normal circumstances, but when the system is disrupted, the relaxed posture of the eyes is slightly divergent. Other considerations Strabismus can be further classified as follows: * Paretic strabismus is due to paralysis of one or several extraocular muscles. * Nonparetic strabismus is not due to paralysis of extraocular muscles. * Comitant (or concomitant) strabismus is a deviation that is the same magnitude regardless of gaze position. * Noncomitant (or incomitant) strabismus has a magnitude that varies as the person shifts his or her gaze up, down, or to the sides. Nonparetic strabismus is generally concomitant. Most types of infant and childhood strabismus are comitant. Paretic strabismus can be either comitant or noncomitant. Incomitant strabismus is almost always caused by a limitation of ocular rotations that is due to a restriction of extraocular eye movement (ocular restriction) or due to extraocular muscle paresis. Incomitant strabismus cannot be fully corrected by prism glasses, because the eyes would require different degrees of prismatic correction dependent on the direction of the gaze. Incomitant strabismus of the eso- or exo-type are classified as "alphabet patterns": they are denoted as A- or V- or more rarely λ-, Y- or X-pattern depending on the extent of convergence or divergence when the gaze moves upward or downward. These letters of the alphabet denote ocular motility pattern that have a similarity to the respective letter: in the A-pattern there is (relatively speaking) more convergence when the gaze is directed upwards and more divergence when it is directed downwards, in the V-pattern it is the contrary, in the λ-, Y- and X-patterns there is little or no strabismus in the middle position but relatively more divergence in one or both of the upward and downward positions, depending on the "shape" of the letter. Types of incomitant strabismus include: Duane syndrome, horizontal gaze palsy, and congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles. When the misalignment of the eyes is large and obvious, the strabismus is called large-angle, referring to the angle of deviation between the lines of sight of the eyes. Less severe eye turns are called small-angle strabismus. The degree of strabismus can vary based on whether the person is viewing a distant or near target. Strabismus that sets in after eye alignment had been surgically corrected is called consecutive strabismus. Differential diagnosis Pseudostrabismus is the false appearance of strabismus. It generally occurs in infants and toddlers whose bridge of the nose is wide and flat, causing the appearance of esotropia due to less sclera being visible nasally. With age, the bridge of the child's nose narrows and the folds in the corner of the eyes become less prominent. Retinoblastoma may also result in abnormal light reflection from the eye.Strabismus correction surgery
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