Abstract
Purpose: We have been attempting to develop an efficient psychophysical test of spatial contrast sensitivity (CS) for use with pediatric patients. To date, our CS card test (VSS, 2004) satisfies most of these requirements, except that it provides only rough estimates of CS threshold due to large step size and limited contrast range. Here we report on a new, more compact booklet version that addresses these limitations.
Methods: The new test consists of (22 – 28 cm) sheets mounted in a spiral flip-binder. One half of each sheet contains a sine-wave grating of given spatial frequency (1.5, 3, 6, 12, or 24 cy/deg at 60 cm). For each SF set, contrast ranges from 3 to 160 CS units in 11 0.21 log CS steps. Testing is forced-choice and proceeds in modified staircase fashion. 150 preschoolers and 85 adults were tested with and without correction. Adults were also tested with the commercial Vistech CS chart.
Results: Adult CSFs obtained with the CS booklet matched closely those obtained with the commercial CS test, both for corrected and uncorrected vision. Among children, those showing abnormal booklet CSFs also showed evidence of optical or ocular dysfunction.
Conclusions: The CS booklet appears to be a significant improvement over previous psychophysical CS tests. It is very compact, easily portable, is tester and child-friendly, is relatively quick (about 4 min/eye), and appears sensitive to optical and visual pathology. An additional clinical advantage is its ability to estimate precise CS thresholds in children and adults with and without ocular pathology.