접수번호: 2008-097 Korean Journal of Ophthalm ology 2009;23:164-168 ISSN : 1011-8942 DOI : 10.3341/kjo.2009.23.3.164 Assessment of Functional Vision Score and Vision-Specific Quality of Life in Individuals With Retinitis Pigmentosa Je Hyun Seo, MD, Hyeong Gon Yu, MD, Byung Joo Lee, MD Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, and Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea Purpose: To determine the relationship between the American Medical Association’s (AMA) functional vision score (FVS) and vision-specific quality of life in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients using the National Eye Institute’s Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ 25). Methods: One hundred eight patients with RP participated in the study. We measured best-corrected visual acuity, conducted Goldmann perimetry, and collected the self-reported NEI-VFQ 25. The FVS was calculated using the functional field score (FFS) and the functional acuity score (FAS). The correlations of the VFQ composite scores to the FVS, FFS, and FAS were determined using correlation and regression analyses. Results: FVS was highly correlated to the BCVA (r=0.69, p<0.001), the FFS (r=0.86, p<0.001) and the FAS (r= 0.73, p<0.001). Significant correlations of the VFQ composite score to the BCVA (r=0.60, p<0.001), FFS (r=0.44, p<0.001), FAS (r=0.60, p<0.001), FVS (r=0.58, p<0.001) were also found. However, the correlation strengths of BCVA, FVS, FAS, and FFS to NEI-FVQ were not different. Conclusions: In RP patients, the vision-specific quality of life was correlated with the AMA guidelines’ FVS, FFS, and FAS. Their correlation degrees to NEI-FVQ were not different. This result suggests that vision-specific quality of life can be explained by both visual acuity and visual field in RP patients. Korean J Ophthalmol 2009;23:164-168 ⓒ 2009 by the Korean Ophthalmological Society. Key Words: AMA guidelines, Functional acuity score, Functional field score, Functional vision score (FVS), NEI-VFQ 25, Retinitis pigmentosa Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which leads to retinal degenera- tion, is characterized by nyctalopia, intraretinal bony specule pigmentation, vessel attenuation, rod-cone dysfunction as de- termined by electroretinogram and progressive visual field loss leading to blindness.1 Impaired vision can be evaluated by mea- suring visual acuity (VA) or by visual field test.2 However, these measurements alone are of limited value in evaluating vision- specific quality of life; hence, several studies3-6 have been con- ducted to document visual function and measure performance in RP patients. Recently, the National Eye Institute’s Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ 25) composite scores were suggested for evaluating vision-specific quality of life, and the reliability of this method was proved in several studies for chronic diseases (glaucoma, ARMD).7,8 The previous stu- dies, however, did not evaluate the relationship between vision- specific quality of life and the American Medical Association (AMA) guidelines’ functional vision score (FVS) in RP patients. Received: September 27, 2008 Accepted: August 7, 2009 Reprint requests to Hyeong Gon Yu, MD. Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University Hospital, #28 Yeongeon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-744, Korea. Tel: 82-2-2072-3083, Fax: 82-2-741-2387, E-mail: hgonyu @snu.ac.kr * This study was presented in part at the 97th annual meeting of the Korea Ophthalmology Society, on April 6th, 2007. 164 The AMA guidelines’ FVS was reported to be a better predictor of vision-targeted quality of life than traditional measurements of visual acuity or visual field extentin disease.9 However, it still remains unclear whether the vision-specific quality of life correlates with objective visual measurements in retinal diseases such as RP. In this study, we measured the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and visual field extent while collecting data from the self-reported NEI-VFQ 25 from RP patients to determine the relationship of the FVS and vision-specific quality of life. We also analyzed the effect of each visual measurement to the quality of life in order to evaluate the importance of each vi- sual scale in RP patients at different clinical stages. To our knowledge, our study offers the first report of the correlation of FVS to vision-specific quality of life in RP patients using the NEI-VFQ 25. M aterials and M etho ds We enrolled 108 volunteers (65 males, 43 females) with RP, ranging in age from 16 to 85 years, who were members of the Korean Retintis Pigmentosa Society. A Korean national RP survey was conducted at Seoul National University Hospital’s retinal clinic from July to December 2006. RP was diagnosed in the recruited patients on the basis of a fundus examination, Goldmann perimetry, and a complete electroretinographic