Evidence for mild blue–yellow colour vision deficits immediately following fluorescein angiography⋆

Abstract

We have investigated the short term effects of fluorescein angiography on the blue-yellow, red-green, and luminance contrast sensitivity of patients with early age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). Nine ARMD patients with no exudative complications and a visual acuity of 20/60 or better in the tested eye were selected. Cardinal colour directions for the isolation of the red-green, blue-yellow and achromatic (luminance) visual mechanisms were determined for each patient. Contrast sensitivity was measured in each cardinal colour direction immediately before and 20 min after standard 20-flash fluorescein angiography. A significant, albeit mild, reduction for blue-yellow contrast sensitivity following angiography was observed (ANOVA, alpha = 0.05). Fluorescein angiographic exposure had no significant effect on red-green or luminance contrast sensitivity. Our results show that fluorescein angiography causes at least a short term deficit selective to blue-yellow contrast sensitivity in our patient group.