Visual acuity and colour perception association with optic nerve head drusen

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the association between the presence of optic nerve head drusen and visual acuity and colour perception established by Maximum colour contrast sensitivity and Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue tests. Material and methods: We have performed a 137 persons case-control study, including 37 patients (67 eyes) with optic nerve disk drusen and 100 healthy controls (200 eyes). To test visual acuity (VA), a typical Snellen chart was used. A computerised Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test and Maximum contrast sensitivity programs were used for colour discrimination. Results: Visual acuity of the eyes in the control group was significantly higher than in the patients (1.0 vs. 0.98±0.02, P=0.17). Even the best-corrected visual acuity of the eyes in the patient group was diminished in 9% of cases (6 eyes): 4 eyes - 0.8, 1 eye - 0.7, 1 eye - 0.9. The Maximum colour contrast sensitivity test and the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test results in the healthy contols were better than in the patients (1.94±0.66 vs. 2.2±0.85, p=0.02; 94.1±53.9 vs. 120.6±61, p=0.003, respectively). Group 2 participants with ONDD made the mistakes related to the different range of the next colours: red, 80.94±23.3; green, 26.57±11.22; blue, 16.69±4.71. For them the worst result (the highest error score) was identified in the red colour sense, based on the F-M 100 hue test, P<0.001. During the Maximum colour contrast sensitivity test Group 2 patients made more mistakes in the blue colour range: 35 patients (52.2%); in the green, 8 patients (11.9%); in the red, 5 patients (7.5%). The blue color range was considered to be highly distinguishable for 12 patients (17.9%); the green, for 4 patients (6%); the red, for 3 patients (4,5%); P<0.001. The control and the patient groups did not differ (p>0.005) in duration of performance of the F-M 100 hue and Maximum colour contrast sensitivity tests. Conclusion: The study revealed that the presence of optic nerve disk drusen was associated w