Measurement of dynamic visual acuity in patients with vestibular areflexia.

CONCLUSION

The test is simple and sensitive enough to separate normal subjects from patients suffering from a vestibular loss. There was also a good correlation between the objective results and the subjective complaint of oscillopsia.

OBJECTIVES

Oscillopsia (i.e. blurred vision while walking) is often reported by patients suffering from vestibular loss. We developed a test to quantify oscillopsia.

METHODS

Visual acuity was determined in 16 normal subjects and in 8 patients suffering from a bilateral vestibular loss, at rest and while walking at increasing speed on a treadmill. Snellen optotypes were randomly projected on a screen and the visual acuity was determined with an adaptative staircase algorithm.

RESULTS

In normal subjects, the visual acuity did not decrease markedly during walking, but decreased significantly in patients with a vestibular loss.