Longitudinal cohort study of patients with birdshot chorioretinopathy II: color vision at baseline.
OBJECTIVE
To describe color vision at the baseline examination of 80 participants in a longitudinal cohort study of birdshot chorioretinopathy and to identify relationships between color vision and visual acuity, symptoms, and ophthalmic signs.


METHODS
Single center cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Color vision was evaluated with the desaturated Lanthony 15-Hue test. Relationships were sought between the square root of the color confusion scores (CCS) and the following factors: best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), symptoms, cataract, vitreous inflammatory reactions, retinal vasculitis, cystoid macular edema (CME), and birdshot lesion characteristics.


RESULTS
When compared with published, age-matched normal control subjects, 49 patients (61.3%; 76 eyes [47.5%]) had abnormal CCS values. Abnormal CCS values were found in nine of 51 phakic eyes (18%) with normal BCVA (>or=1.0) and without cataract. Although most eyes did not have classifiable defects, 30 eyes (18.8%) had tritan (blue-yellow) defects (88% of eyes with classifiable defects). With the use of multivariate analyses, there were significant associations between increased CCS values and the symptoms of altered color vision (P = .005) and altered contrast sensitivity (P = .015). There was a significant, but weak, relationship between CCS values and birdshot lesion morphologic condition (P = .049), but no relationships were found with other lesion characteristics or with vitreous inflammatory reactions, retinal vasculitis, or CME.


CONCLUSIONS
The Lanthony 15-Hue test provides an objective technique to assess complaints of altered color vision in people with birdshot chorioretinopathy. Color vision can be abnormal in eyes with normal visual acuity; therefore, this parameter may be useful as an additional measure for monitoring the disease.
Holland
Gary N
GN
Ocular Inflammatory Disease Center, Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
Shah
Kayur H
KH
Monnet
Dominique
D
Brezin
Antoine P
AP
Yu
Fei
F
Nusinowitz
Steven
S
Levinson
Ralph D
RD
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002386:Cataract / Q000150:complications; D015862:Choroid Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003119:Color Perception Tests; D003117:Color Vision Defects / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012164:Retinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014822:Vitreous Body / Q000473:pathology