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. 2023 Apr 14;7(3):232-238.
doi: 10.1177/24741264231165611. eCollection 2023 May-Jun.

Association Between Contrast Sensitivity and Central Subfield Thickness in Center-Involving Diabetic Macular Edema

Grace Baldwin  1   2 , Filippos Vingopoulos  1   2 , Rebecca Zeng  1   2 , Hannah Wescott  1   2 , Augustine Bannerman  1   2 , Thomas Koch  1   2 , Kira Wang  1   2 , Itika Garg  1   2 , Raviv Katz  1   2 , Leo A Kim  2 , John B Miller  1   2
Affiliations

Association Between Contrast Sensitivity and Central Subfield Thickness in Center-Involving Diabetic Macular Edema

Grace Baldwin et al. J Vitreoretin Dis. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the association between contrast sensitivity (CS) and central subfield thickness (CST) in diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods: This prospectively recruited, cross-sectional study included eyes with DME evaluated from November 2018 to March 2021. CST was measured using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography on the same day as CS testing. Only eyes with center-involving DME (CST >305 µm for women; >320 µm for men) were included. CS was evaluated using the quantitative CS function (qCSF) test. Outcomes included visual acuity (VA) and the following qCSF metrics: area under the log CS function, contrast acuity (CA), and CS thresholds at 1 to 18 cycles per degree (cpd). Pearson correlation and mixed-effects regression analyses were performed. Results: The cohort included 52 eyes of 43 patients. Pearson correlation analysis showed a stronger association between CST and CS thresholds at 6 cpd (r = -0.422, P = 0.002) than CST and VA (r = 0.293, P = 0.035). Mixed-effects univariate and multivariate regression analyses showed significant associations between CST and CA (β = -0.001, P = .030), CS at 6 cpd (β = -0.002, P = .008), and CS at 12 cpd (β = -0.001, P = .049) but no significant associations between CST and VA. Among the visual function metrics, the effect size of CST was largest on CS at 6 cpd (βStandardized = -0.37, P = .008). Conclusions: In patients with DME, CS may be more strongly associated with CST than VA. Including CS as an adjunct visual function outcome measure in eyes with DME may prove clinically valuable.

Keywords: central subfield thickness; contrast sensitivity; diabetic macular edema; optical coherence tomography.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr. Kim has received research support from National Eye Institute (R01EY027739), CureVac AG, and Ingenia Therapeutics and has a financial arrangement with Pykus Therapeutics. Dr. Miller is a consultant to Alcon, Allergan, Topcon, Carl Zeiss, Sunovion, and Genentech.

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