Functional vision in patients with neovascular maculopathy and poor visual acuity.
Central visual function is characteristically reported as Snellen acuity at distance and near. We performed functional tests in a group of patients with visual acuity of 20/100 or worse due to macular disease to determine whether there was a relationship between Snellen acuity and functional performance among these patients with poor visual acuity. Our tests of functional performance included currency discrimination, color recognition, reading a clock, and reading large print. Our results suggest that there is a correlation between Snellen acuity and functional vision, even among patients with poor visual acuity. Hence, therapeutic efforts to keep patients' visual acuity at 20/200 rather than 20/400, for example, appears to be justifiable in that better acuity levels seem to be associated with improved functional performance.
D000375:Aging; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D006660:Histoplasmosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014792:Visual Acuity