title: Reading performance in patients with glaucoma evaluated using the MNREAD charts.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Reading performance in glaucoma patients has yet to be studied. We hypothesized that glaucomatous visual field loss affects reading performance even in patients with good acuity and evaluated their reading performance quantitatively.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, comparative, non-interventional study. Forty-nine patients with early-moderate glaucomatous visual field loss OU with visual acuity better than 1.0 in the better and 0.7 in the worse eye. Reading performance in glaucoma patients was examined by the Japanese version of the Minnesota Reading Acuity Chart (MNREAD) were compared to that of age-matched normal subjects (n = 30).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study subjects consisted of the 21 men and 28 women. The mean age was 53.3 ± 12.6 years. Diagnosis included primary open-angle glaucoma (n = 22), normal-tension glaucoma (n = 22), developmental glaucoma (n = 4) and exfoliation glaucoma (n = 1). Reading parameters of glaucoma patients examined by MNREAD were: maximum reading speed (MRS), 329.9 ± 55.4 characters per min.; critical print size (CPS), 0.24 ± 0.14 logMAR; reading acuity (RA), 0.02 ± 0.12 log MAR, significantly lower than those of normal subjects (MRS 363.0 ± 42.9, CPS 0.09 ± 0.13 logMAR, RA -0.13 ± 0.10 logMAR, P < 0.01 for three parameters by unpaired t test). CPS in glaucoma subjects was negatively correlated with mean deviation of Humphrey Field Analyzer 10-2 and 30-2 programs in the better eye (r = -0.402, P < 0.005; r = -0.304, P < 0.05; respectively, by linear regression analysis).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reading performance deteriorated even in glaucoma patients with good acuity.
authors.affiliation: Division of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Graduated School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, 1-757 Asahimachi, Niigata, 951-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Masako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Ryoko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Harigai
authors.forename: Haruki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukuchi
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017889:Exfoliation Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D057066:Low Tension Glaucoma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000295:instrumentation; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology