Assessment of central and peripheral contrast sensitivity in myopes using Spaeth/Richman contrast sensitivity

Assessing central and peripheral contrast sensitivity (CS) in myopic patients with varying degrees of refractive error using Spaeth/Richman contrast sensitivity test (SPARCS) and compared it with emmetropic individuals.

CS of 50 consecutive myopic individuals of varying severity was matched with emmetropes using an online CS test, SPARCS, and Pelli-Robson test. Group comparisons for continuously distributed data were made using analysis of variance (ANOVA) when comparing the groups. A post hoc analysis was also done to compare pairs of each group. SPARCS scores were correlated with age and gender.

Data of 126 eyes, 96 eyes from 50 myopes and 30 eyes from 15 emmetropes, were analyzed. The total SPARCS scores of Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 75.15 ± 9.59, 76.48 ± 7.74, 74.55 ± 7.48, and 86.43 + 5.3, respectively. Univariate ANOVA analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in total SPARCS score distribution in the three subgroups with myopia (P = 0.048) and between all the groups (P = 0.000). No statistically significant difference was seen between the groups when comparing the individual SPARCS scores with either age or gender.

The study concludes that there is a significant difference in the CS in patients with varying severity of myopia and assessing peripheral CS is an important adjunct to central CS.