Original articleVisual Acuity Deficits in Children With Nystagmus and Down Syndrome
Section snippets
Methods
The research protocol and informed consent form for this cross-sectional study were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Written informed consent was obtained from a parent or legal guardian for each participant. This study was performed in accordance with the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Results
Visual acuity in the 16 children with Down syndrome and nystagmus spanned a large range from 0.2-0.9 logMAR or 20/30-20/174 Snellen equivalent (mean 0.58 logMAR, 20/76) with no association with age (linear regression, P = .15). The mean visual acuity deficit with respect to age-matched norms was 0.40 logMAR (Figure 1), or 4 lines poorer than mean normal.
Inspection of the eye-movement recordings obtained under binocular viewing conditions showed infantile nystagmus-type waveforms (pendular [n =
Discussion
Using a behavioral testing method that poses only limited demands on the child's cognitive and motor skills,7, 8 we found mild to moderate visual acuity deficits in this group of children with Down syndrome and nystagmus averaging approximately 4 lines below age-adjusted mean normal; all but 3 scored outside of the normal limits for their age. The number of participants in this sudy was small but spanned a wide age range throughout childhood, thus providing cross-sectional evidence of visual
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