Umay GÜVENÇ, Ahmet KADERLI, Basak MEMIS, Gülizar SOYUGELEN, Sema Tamer KADERLI, Sabahattin SÜL
Turkish Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology - 2026;21(2):51-63
Purpose: To compare contrast sensitivity (CS) in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXG), and to investigate clinical, structural, and microvascular factors associated with CS. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study included 41 patients (21 POAG, 20 PXG), matched for glaucoma stage. All participants underwent visual acuity (VA) assessment, intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement, visual field (VF) testing, optical coherence tomography (OCT), optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and CS testing using the CSV-1000 system. Correlation, analysis of covariance, and multivariable regression analyses were performed. Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate correction was applied to correlation analyses. Results: No significant differences were observed between the POAG and PXG groups with respect to IOP, VF indices, or OCT/OCTA parameters. CS values were comparable between POAG and PXG across all spatial frequencies, with no significant intergroup differences detected after adjustment for potential confounders (all p>0.05). VA emerged as the strongest independent predictor of CS across all models (all p<0.01), while higher IOP was associated with lower CS only at the lowest spatial frequency (p=0.046). CS showed stronger associations with VF parameters in POAG, whereas in PXG, CS was more closely related to OCTA-derived microvascular parameters. Conclusion: POAG and PXG patients with similar glaucoma stage demonstrated comparable CS levels across spatial frequencies. However, the clinical factors associated with CS showed different association patterns between subtypes, with stronger associations with VF parameters in POAG and microvascular measures in PXG. CS may provide complementary functional information beyond conventional glaucoma assessments.
