Near vision examination in presbyopia patients: Do we need good homologated near vision charts?

Wolfgang Radner

doi:10.1186/s40662-016-0061-7

Abstract

Presbyopia correction is mainly concerned with the goal of regaining an uncorrected reading performance. Since historic reading charts do not provide a unique standard that is applicable for the analysis of clinical and scientific reading performance, new standardized reading charts have been developed, in order to provide reading performance analyses analogous to modern single-optotype distance acuity measurements: the Bailey-Lovie Word Reading Chart, the Colenbrander English Continuous Text Near Vision Cards, the MNREAD Charts, and the RADNER Reading Charts. The last three are also meant to measure reading speed, thus allowing detailed analysis of the reading capabilities of the patient’s functional vision. Furthermore, these reading charts can be declared homologated, based on the standards that were published for reading charts by the Visual Function Committee of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) in 1988. Many research studies have shown that by analyzing the reading performance with homologated reading charts, valuable insight into the reading performance of patients suffering from various diseases can be obtained. These reading charts have also been successfully used in presbyopia research. It therefore seems evident that homologated, standardized reading charts facilitate not only research concerning functional vision in many fields of ophthalmology but also international communication about near visual performance. Homologated reading charts are available in almost all languages and have become a valuable tool in analyzing reading performance. We argue in this review that homologated reading charts are clearly a necessity for presbyopia research.

Highlights

Historical aspects of reading charts While clear standards for distance acuity measurements and optotypes were established [32] in the second half of the 19th century, a similar standard has not been developed for reading charts
Modern logarithmic reading charts All of these modern reading charts use a logarithmic progression of print sizes and are homologated in accordance with the standards established by the International Council of Ophthalmology [24] and EN-ISO 8596 [31]
The results have demonstrated that these reading charts provide highly reproducible measurements of reading acuity and speed in individuals with no, moderate, or increased visual impairment

Summary

Introduction

Historical aspects of reading charts While clear standards for distance acuity measurements and optotypes were established [32] in the second half of the 19th century, a similar standard has not been developed for reading charts. In 1988, the Visual Function Committee of the International Council of Ophthalmology published a standard for reading charts [24] in order to establish homologated reading acuity measures. In short: By analogy to the standards of visual acuity measurements, the print sizes of reading charts have to progress logarithmically.

Results

Conclusion