NEW PROCEDURES FOR DETECTING EARLY VISION LOSSES IN THE ELDERLY

With the proportion of elderly in the population increasing, and with improving methods for modifying or treating age-related changes affect ing the visual system, there is an increasing need for broader and mor e specific assessments of vision functions in the older patient. As ag e increases, vision function changes are diverse. Here we discuss meth ods for the clinical assessment of three of these functions; namely, v isual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and disability glare. Visual acuit y remains the most useful test of visual function and improved chart d esigns and scoring methods enhance our ability to detect and monitor c hange. A variety of different approaches to assessing contrast sensiti vity and contrast sensitivity testing should facilitate the diagnostic process and help to predict and explain changes in visual functioning . Disability glare can be expected to become more important in the rou tine evaluation of the ocular media and for this several new tests hav e recently become available.