Test-retest Repeatability of the Ohio Contrast Cards.

SIGNIFICANCE: The Ohio Contrast Cards are a repeatable test of contrast sensitivity, and they reveal higher contrast sensitivity for low-vision patients than is shown by the Pelli-Robson chart. PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare the contrast sensitivity results and test/retest ±limits of agreement for the Ohio Contrast Cards and the Pelli-Robson letter contrast sensitivity chart on two challenging groups of participants, and to compare the Ohio Contrast Card results with grating acuity and the Pelli-Robson results with letter acuity. METHODS: The Ohio Contrast Card and Pelli-Robson tests were each performed twice by two different examiners within one visit on 40 elder patients in Primary Vision Care (>65 years old) and 23 to 27 low-vision school-aged students. Grating acuity was measured using the Teller Acuity Cards (all participants), and letter acuity was measured using ClearChart (elders) or the Bailey-Lovie chart (students). RESULTS: The ±95% limits of agreement were similar for the Ohio Contrast Cards and the Pelli-Robson chart. The elders' limits of agreement were ±0.27 (Ohio Contrast Cards) and ±0.28 (Pelli-Robson); the students' limits of agreement were ±0.42 (Ohio Contrast Cards) and ±0.51 (Pelli-Robson). However, Ohio Contrast Card results were 0.41 log10 Michelson units more sensitive than the Pelli-Robson chart (over one line on the Pelli-Robson chart) for the elders and 0.90 log10 Michelson units (three lines on the Pelli-Robson chart) more sensitive for the elders (0.11 and 0.6 log10 Weber units, respectively). The Pelli-Robson results were correlated with letter acuities and Ohio Contrast Card results for both groups, and the Ohio Contrast Card results were correlated with Teller Acuity Card acuities for the elders. CONCLUSIONS: The Ohio Contrast Cards and Pelli-Robson chart are similarly repeatable. Both contrast sensitivity tests can provide additional clinical information that is not available through visual acuity testing, and Ohio Contrast Card may provide additional information not available from the Pelli-Robson chart.

The Ohio Contrast Cards: Visual Performance in a Pediatric Low-vision Site.

SIGNIFICANCE: This report describes the first clinical use of the Ohio Contrast Cards, a new test that measures the maximum spatial contrast sensitivity of low-vision patients who cannot recognize and identify optotypes and for whom the spatial frequency of maximum contrast sensitivity is unknown. PURPOSE: To compare measurements of the Ohio Contrast Cards to measurements of three other vision tests and a vision-related quality-of-life questionnaire obtained on partially sighted students at Ohio State School for the Blind. METHODS: The Ohio Contrast Cards show printed square-wave gratings at very low spatial frequency (0.15 cycle/degree). The patient looks to the left/right side of the card containing the grating. Twenty-five students (13 to 20 years old) provided four measures of visual performance: two grating card tests (the Ohio Contrast Cards and the Teller Acuity Cards) and two letter charts (the Pelli-Robson contrast chart and the Bailey-Lovie acuity chart). Spatial contrast sensitivity functions were modeled using constraints from the grating data. The Impact of Vision Impairment on Children questionnaire measured vision-related quality of life. RESULTS: Ohio Contrast Card contrast sensitivity was always less than 0.19 log10 units below the maximum possible contrast sensitivity predicted by the model; average Pelli-Robson letter contrast sensitivity was near the model prediction, but 0.516 log10 units below the maximum. Letter acuity was 0.336 logMAR below the grating acuity results. The model estimated the best testing distance in meters for optimum Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity from the Bailey-Lovie acuity as distance = 1.5 - logMAR for low-vision patients. Of the four vision tests, only Ohio Contrast Card contrast sensitivity was independently and statistically significantly correlated with students' quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The Ohio Contrast Cards combine a grating stimulus, a looking indicator behavior, and contrast sensitivity measurement. They show promise for the clinical objective of advising the patient and his/her caregivers about the success the patient is likely to enjoy in tasks of everyday life.