title: Retinal acuity evaluation with the potential acuity meter in glaucoma patients.
abstract: The potential acuity meter (PAM) is designed to evaluate retinal acuity in the presence of media opacities. We looked at patients with glaucoma but with clear media, and compared best corrected visual acuity with PAM results to see if they produced comparable results. Sixty eyes in 38 glaucoma patients and 20 eyes in 10 normal ocular patients were evaluated. Our results indicate that PAM visual acuity is a reliable indicator of Snellen visual acuity in normal eyes, in eyes with mild to moderate glaucomatous damage, and when PAM visual acuity measurements were better than 20/60. However, when visual field loss is severe and when PAM visual acuity readings were worse than 20/60, the correspondence between these and Snellen visual acuity was erratic. Poor PAM results will not correlate with postoperative visual acuity in patients with advanced glaucoma and cataracts.
mesh_terms: D005901:Glaucoma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D012160:Retina / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014792:Visual Acuity