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Ritwick Agrawal, MS, MD; Ian P. Conner, PhD; J. V. Odom, PhD; Terry L. Schwartz, MD; Janine D. Mendola, PhD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2006;124:844-850.

Objectives  To examine deficits in monocular and binocular vision in adults with amblyopia and to test the following 2 hypotheses: (1) Regardless of clinical subtype, the degree of impairment in binocular integration predicts the pattern of monocular acuity deficits. (2) Subjects who lack binocular integration exhibit the most severe interocular suppression.

Methods  Seven subjects with anisometropia, 6 subjects with strabismus, and 7 control subjects were tested. Monocular tests included Snellen acuity, grating acuity, Vernier acuity, and contrast sensitivity. Binocular tests included Titmus stereo test, binocular motion integration, and dichoptic contrast masking.

Results  As expected, both groups showed deficits in monocular acuity, with subjects with strabismus showing greater deficits in Vernier acuity. Both amblyopic groups were then characterized according to the degree of residual stereoacuity and binocular motion integration ability, and 67% of subjects with strabismus compared with 29% of subjects with anisometropia were classified as having "nonbinocular" vision according to our criterion. For this nonbinocular group, Vernier acuity is most impaired. In addition, the nonbinocular group showed the most dichoptic contrast masking of the amblyopic eye and the least dichoptic contrast masking of the fellow eye.

Conclusion  The degree of residual binocularity and interocular suppression predicts monocular acuity and may be a significant etiological mechanism of vision loss.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Neurobiology and Anatomy (Drs Agrawal, Conner, and Mendola), Ophthalmology (Drs Odom, Schwartz, and Mendola), and Radiology (Dr Mendola) and Center for Advanced Imaging (Dr Mendola), School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown.

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