MACULAR DRUSEN AND THE SENSITIVITY OF THE CENTRAL VISUAL-FIELD

Macular drusen are one of the earliest signs of age-related macular de generation but little information is available on the functional aspec ts of macular area in patients with drusen. To determine if drusen are associated with changes in central visual field sensitivity, one eye of each of 35 subjects (mean age 64.9 years) with bilateral drusen and visual acuity of 1.0 (20/20) underwent automated static threshold per imetry of the central 10 degrees. 16 normal subjects (mean age 65.8 ye ars) were used as controls. 30 degrees fundus photographs were graded in a masked fashion for the clinical characteristics of drusen, type, size and number. The mean sensitivity (MS) of the central 10 degrees w as significantly lower in eyes with drusen compared to normal eyes (p= .0001). After grading drusen eyes for size (greater than or equal to 6 3 mu) and type (presence of soft drusen), MS significantly deteriorate d when large and soft drusen were present. These results suggest that central visual field sensitivity is precociously affected in eyes with drusen and that testing central visual field sensitivity may be usefu l as functional parameter in long term studies on the evolution of age -related macular degeneration.