Associations between color perception and optic nerve disk drusen

Rasa Liutkevičienė, Dalia Žaliūnienė, Daiva Stanislovaitienė, Vytautas Jašinskas

Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania

Key words: optic nerve disk drusen; visual acuity; Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test; maximum color contrast sensitivity test.

Summary. The aim of this study was to determine the association between color perception determined by maximum color contrast sensitivity and Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue tests and visual acuity in the presence of optic nerve disk drusen.

Material and methods. A case-control study, including 137 persons, was performed. Thirty-seven patients (67 eyes) with optic nerve disk drusen and 100 healthy controls (200 eyes) were examined. For visual acuity testing, a typical Snellen chart (the direction of the gap in Landolt C) was used. A computerized Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test and maximum color contrast sensitivity programs were used for color discrimination.

Results. The results of maximum color contrast sensitivity test, and the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test were better in healthy controls than patients (1.94±0.66 vs. 2.2±0.85, P=0.02; 94.1±53.9 vs. 120.6±61, P=0.003, respectively).

Conclusion. The study revealed that the presence of optic nerve disk drusen was associated with decreased perception of colors.

Correspondence to R. Liutkevičienė, Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eivenių 2, 50028 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: rliutkeviciene@gmail.com

Received 22 June 2009, accepted 7 December 2010