Comparison of Visual Function in Older Eyes in the Earliest Stages of Age-related Macular Degeneration to Those in Normal Macular Health

AbstractPurpose: To compare the ability of several visual functional tests in terms of the strength of their associations with the earliest phases of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which bears on their potential to serve as functional endpoints in evaluating treatments for early AMD and prevention strategies.Materials and methods: Eyes from adults ≥60 years old were identified as being in normal macular health or in the earliest stages of AMD (steps 2, 3 or 4) through grading of color stereo-fundus photos by an experienced grader masked to all other study variables who used the 9-step Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) classification system for AMD severity. Visual function was assessed using the following tests: best-corrected visual acuity, low luminance visual acuity, spatial contrast sensitivity, macular cone-mediated light sensitivity and rod-mediated dark adaptation.Results: A total of 1260 eyes were tested from 640 participants; 1007 eyes were in normal macular health (defined as step 1...