Assessment of Central Visual Function in Patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa

Abstract

Purpose : To investigate the decline of the visual field using the Humphrey Field Analyzer (HFA) and the association among several factors related to disease progression in RP patients.

Methods : We examined a total of 118 patients who were diagnosed with typical RP. Visual acuity (VA), visual field, and optical coherence tomography measurements were obtained for all patients. The slopes, which were derived from serial values of mean deviation (MD), macular sensitivity (MS), or foveal sensitivity (FS) obtained for each eye by univariate linear regression, was used for analysis. MS and FS were calculated as the average retinal sensitivity of 12 and 4 central points respectively.

Results : Sixty-four percent of the patients were female, the mean age of the total group was 47.1 years, and the mean follow-up was 5.3 years. The VA and FS slopes were significantly correlated with central subfield thickness. Compared to the eyes without macular complications, the eyes with macular complications had steeper VA, MD, MS and FS slopes, and this difference was significant for the FS slope (p=0.03).

Conclusions : The slopes of central retinal sensitivity calculated by the HFA are effective for representing the progression of central visual function in RP, thus they could be considered an appropriate surrogate marker for future therapeutic clinical trials.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.