Psychophysical tests in X-linked retinitis pigmentosa carrier status

Psychophysical tests were performed in 22 normal women and 17 X-linked carriers of retinitis pigmentosa. The tests consisted of luminance contrast sensitivity, grating at the fovea and broken annulus at the periphery, color contrast sensitivity, letters for the fovea and broken annulus for the periphery, along the three known confusion axes of protan, deutan and tritan observers. Statistical analysis of the data shows that there were significant differences between the carriers and age-similar normal subjects with all the tests. The most significant differences (P < 0.001) were found with the color contrast sensitivity at the periphery along the protanopic and deutanopic axes and the luminance contrast sensitivity at the periphery. The influence of the age is discussed.