MNREAD Acuity Test Reliability in Patients with Age-Related Maculopathy

Abstract

The recently developed MNREAD ACUITY CHARTSR have been suggested to be very useful tools for clinical examination and research in patients with low vision1. The MNREAD charts were designed to address limitations found with standard near optotype acuity tests. The design of many standard near acuity tests is not consistent with currently accepted acuity chart guidelines2, and it has been found that standard optotype acuities are poor predictors of reading performance3 and the ability to use low vision aids4. A potential advantage of the MNREAD charts is that they can be used to quantify reading speed across a range of sentence character sizes in patients with low vision. Previous studies have found that MNREAD measures of reading acuity, optimal character size and critical character size are very useful indices for characterizing reading abilities in patients with low vision1,5-6. However, the MNREAD charts are relatively new, and little is known about the test-retest reliability of MNREAD measures in patients with low vision.