Abstract
Purpose :
In the covid crisis and beyond, it is critical that we find home-based monitoring tools to measure progressive glaucomatous damage. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between glaucomatous visual field loss and contrast sensitivity (CS) measured using a home based app.
Methods :
30 patients across the glaucomatous disease spectrum and with good central visual acuity tested a home based app, the Berkeley Contrast Squares (BCSA), that measures CS. The BCSA is a free-downloadable tool that records users’ binocular contrast sensitivity and is valid for varying degrees of visual acuity. Patients were sent a video (4min 46s) via email that contained detailed instructions on how to download and use the BCSA at home. The test-retest window was 15 weeks. Validity analyses was calculated using a mixed effects linear regression with log contrast sensitivity as the predictor and visual field as the outcome.
Results :
In glaucoma patients the overall correlation for test-retest reliability was 0.94. Validity analyses showed high correlations between home-based contrast testing and 10-2 VF (p=0.002) and 24-2 VF (p=0.05). A change in 0.1 Log Weber corresponded to a 0.8 dB decline in 24-2 VF MD (95%CI [0.24 to 18.0]) ) and a 1.3 dB decline in 10-2 VF MD (95% CI [5.2 to 21.0]).
Conclusions :
A free downloadable app provides a highly repeatable measure of CS. These results significantly correlate with functional visual field loss. This study suggests that the Berkeley Contrast Squares App has potential to be adopted as a home monitoring tool to track the progression of glaucoma between regular office visits.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.