Diagnostic Criteria of Pattern VEP in Adult Monocular Amblyopic Patients

PURPOSE: To suggest a diagnostic criteria of pattern visual evoked potential (VEP) in adult monocular amblyopic patients in comparison to normal subjects. METHODS: The medical records of patients' military service certificates from January 2000 to December 2011 were reviewed. The parameters of pattern VEP were analyzed by comparing monocular amblyopic patients with normal controls. RESULTS: This study included 47 monocular amblyopia and 39 normal control patients. All parameters of pattern VEP were statistically significantly different between monocular amblyopic eyes and normal eyes. The cut-off values for diagnosis of adult amblyopia using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were 113.50 msec (P100 latency), 1.05 (ratio of P100 latency), 8.50 msec (interocular difference of P100 latency), and 5.25 microV (interocular difference of P100 amplitude). Cut-off value sensitivities were generally low: (51.1%, 70.2%, 53.2%, and 31.9%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The value of pattern VEP parameters had limitations due to low sensitivity and could be considered as ancillary diagnostic criteria when diagnosing amblyopia.

Follow-up Results of the Monocular Amblyopia

We analyzed 52 monocular amblyopia patients, who had never taken amblyopia treatment previously and been followed up more than 3 months after terminating treatment of amblyopiam, about clinical features of monocular amblyopia and factors associated with treatment of amblyopia. Strabismus was the most common cause of monocular amblyopia, followed by anisometropia and visual deprivation in that order. But the average period of treatment was longest in visual deprivation amblyopia, followed by strabismic amblyopia and anisometropic amblyopia. In strabismic amblyopia, the greater the prism diopter, the longer the period of treatment taken. In anisometropic amblyopia, the greater the difference of corrected visual acuity, the longer the period of treatment taken.