Reading Ability in Primary Open-angle Glaucoma: Evaluation with Radner Reading Charts

This study determined the impact of visual disabilities caused by glaucoma on the patient's everyday life and emphasized the importance of developing strategies to improve reading ability in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. PURPOSE The purposes of this study were to investigate the reading performances of patients affected by POAG using the Italian version of the Radner Reading Charts and to test the presence of correlation between visual field (VF) damage and reading parameters. METHODS In this cross-sectional observational study, all patients underwent a complete ophthalmic evaluation including VF testing and evaluation of reading performance using the Radner Reading Charts. The parameters for testing reading performance were reading acuity in logRAD, reading speed in words per minute, maximum reading speed, critical print size, and reading mistakes. Primary open-angle glaucoma and healthy groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. The correlation between VF and reading parameters in glaucomatous eyes was assessed using Spearman correlation analysis. Based on VF mean deviation, each POAG patient had differences in reading performance between his/her best and worst eyes when compared using the paired Wilcoxon test. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ .05. RESULTS Eighty POAG patients and 60 healthy controls were enrolled. Glaucomatous subjects read slowly (166.63 ± 29.40 vs. 193.84 ± 26.20 words per minute, P
Source: Optometry and Vision Science - Category: Opthalmology Tags: ORIGINAL INVESTIGATIONS Source Type: research