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Red-tinted contacts improve vision, quality of life in those with retinal disorders
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Red-tinted contact lenses offered improvement in binocular visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and photophobia, both indoors and outdoors, and a marked improvement in quality of life in patients with degenerative retinal diseases, according to researchers in Optometry and Vision Science.
Severinsky and colleagues studied nine patients who were between 15 and 22 years old. Four of the patients had achromatopsia, two had cone dystrophy, one had cone-rod dystrophy and two had idiopathic maculopathy. All nine patients had decreased visual acuity and color blindness as well as severe photophobia and nystagmus, according to the study.
All patients underwent a full eye exam with and without contact lenses and were measured for visual acuity, contrast sensitivity (CS), eye movement recording for nystagmus, refraction and a fundus examination.
Mean binocular visual acuity improved from 6/45 to 6/40, and CS improved from 0.92 to 1.18 log units; both deemed statistically significant, according to the researchers. Seven of the nine patients demonstrated an improvement of at least one line in best corrected visual acuity, both monocular and binocularly.
The four patients with achromatopsia showed improvement in both visual acuity and CS.
All patients reported a decrease in visual difficulties and subjective improvement in quality of life, according to the study.
The researchers speculate that the red lenses reduce the amount of light transmitted through the ipRGC pathway, alleviating symptomatic photophobia.
Six out of the nine patients preferred lenses with a light transmittance of 13.8%, or a dark tint, according to the study.
Contrast perception improved in seven patients.
“Although [the modest improvement in visual acuity and CS] may be considered minor for patients with a normal retinal function, a gain of even a single line on a Snellen chart is a meaningful improvement in overall visual performance for those with a limited visual potential,” the researchers wrote. – by Abigail Sutton
Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.
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