Comparison of measures of visual acuity in infants: Teller acuity cards and sweep visual evoked potentials.
OBJECTIVE
This study compares the development of acuity in the same infants during one testing session using Teller acuity cards (TAC) and sweep visual evoked potentials (sVEP). We asked whether different testing methods in two centers would produce different developmental time courses.


METHODS
Forty-eight infants were tested in two centers. The standard procedure for TAC was used. For sVEP acuity, the amplitude response curve derived from time-locked cortical activity was used to extrapolate to zero response, giving an acuity estimate for each infant.


RESULTS
sVEP acuity was generally higher than TAC acuity. The rate of development was steeper for TAC than sVEP acuity with TAC starting at a much lower level. The ratio of sVEP to TAC acuity decreased exponentially with age reaching an asymptote of about 1.44 at 6 months.


CONCLUSIONS
Results were indistinguishable between centers suggesting that comparison of acuity measures obtained using variations of these methods across centers is possible.
Riddell
P M
PM
Infant Study Center, Brooklyn College of CUNY, USA.
Ladenheim
B
B
Mast
J
J
Catalano
T
T
Nobile
R
R
Hainline
L
L
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000379:methods*; D014792:Visual Acuity