Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To evaluate the sensitivity of the Eger Macular Stressometer (EMS) for early screening of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in an office setting. We examined the null hypothesis that AMD eyes have EMS recovery times (RTs) that do not differ from eyes with cataract, diabetic retinopathy, or glaucoma. Design: Nonrandomized clinical trial. Methods: Ninety-two eyes from 92 patients with vision 20/80 or better, age 50 and over, of either gender, and any ethnic origin were recruited into 1 of 4 groups: AMD (30 eyes), normal or mild cataract (30 eyes), diabetic retinopathy (16 eyes), and glaucoma (16 eyes). Recovery times were obtained with the EMS according to manufacturer’s instructions. Results: The mean (SD) [median] RT for the AMD group was 11.8 (7.6) [9] seconds, the normal/cataract group was 10.0 (4.3) [9] seconds, the diabetic retinopathy group 8.4 (3.0) [8] seconds, and glaucoma group 8.6 (2.4) [8] seconds. Recovery time did not appear to be related to group (p = 0.58), age (p = 0.50), visual acuity (p = 0.52), or sex (p = 0.23). Conclusions: We found EMS RT distributions did not differ between AMD, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma groups. The EMS is not a sensitive screening tool for AMD. Further testing is needed to examine EMS sensitivity with other macular diseases such as central serous choroidopathy and diabetic macular edema.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: sys • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: tre