Abstract
Purpose: :
We present the results of the first subject who could achieve short word recognition out of a total of 32 subjects participating in the international Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Trial (Second Sight Medical Products Inc, Sylmar, CA, USA).
Methods: :
Subjects were blind with bare light perception due to retinitis pigmentosa and were tested as follows using a computer monitor. Three letter words (dad, fat, hat, cat, rob, etc) were displayed in 350 point Century Gothic font in white letters on a computer screen on a black background using PowerPoint, viewed 12" away. An open set of words were used and were displayed in a random order. Subjects were asked to recognize high contrast short words by identifying each letter at a time, and then saying which word these spelled.
Results: :
Subject 52-001 was the first subject to undergo word recognition testing in the trial. Within minutes of commencing the test, he could identify three of the six words. Since the subject did not know in advance which words would be presented, we believe he achieved the word recognition task. Further subjects will be tested in the near future.
Conclusions: :
This subject, implanted with the Argus II device, has demonstrated the feasibility of identifying high contrast letters and mentally constructing short words.
Clinical Trial: :
www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00407602
Keywords: reading • retinal degenerations: hereditary • retina