The Thai logarithmic visual acuity chart.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate visual acuity scores from the Thai and the standard logarithmic visual acuity chart. DESIGN: Comparative non-randomized clinical study. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD: 153 subjects, calculated from sample size estimation, without any ocular disease and aged between 18 and 80 years old who could read English and at least 3 out of 5 letters of the largest line of both charts were enrolled to use only their right eyes to read the Thai and the standard logarithmic visual acuity chart without any refractive correction. 27 subjects came back for second measurements of visual acuity in the same manner as the first a week later. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENT: The visual acuity scores were divided into the Snellen or the whole line score and the ETDRS or the letter-by-letter score. The former was compared by weighted Kappa and the latter was compared by the paired t-test. RESULTS: There was high agreement in weighted Kappa between the Snellen scores from the Thai and standard chart (k = 0.7375). There was also high agreement in weighted Kappa between the Snellen scores from the first and second reading of the Thai chart (k = 0.7304) and the standard chart (k = 0.7282). A high correlation was observed between the ETDRS scores from the Thai and standard charts (r = 0.947). Also there was a high correlation between the ETDRS scores of the first and second reading of both the Thai chart (r = 0.962) and the standard chart (r = 0.952). There was a significant difference between the ETDRS scores from the Thai and standard chart (p<0.0001). There was no significant difference between the ETDRS scores from the first and second reading of either the Thai chart (p = 0.794) or the standard chart (p = 0.62). CONCLUSION: The Snellen visual acuity score from the Thai chart is comparable to the standard chart. Although the ETDRS score from the Thai chart is different statistically from the standard chart, its test-retest variability tends to be low. This suggests the possibility of using the Thai chart for monitoring of the ETDRS score in research studies.