Longitudinal cohort study of patients with birdshot chorioretinopathy. V. Quality of life at baseline.

Objective: To describe results of a vision-specific quality-of-life (QOL) questionnaire at baseline examination of 80 subjects in a longitudinal cohort study of birdshot chorioretinopathy and to identify relationships between these results and measures of visual function.

Methods: Single-center, cross-sectional study. Methods: The National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25) was administered to all subjects. NEI VFQ-25 composite scores were compared with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), symptoms, color confusion scores, and parameters from automated perimetry (mean deviation [MD], total deviation) for the better eye (with regard to the factor being studied) of each subject. Selected measures of visual function were compared with the 12 subscale scores.

Results: The median composite score was 76.8 (range, 7.8 to 99.4). Worse composite scores were related to decreased BCVA (P = .030), but the correlation was weak, and subjects with normal BCVA (> or = 1.0) in both eyes had composite scores as low as 37.7. Lower composite scores were related to symptoms of blurry vision (P = .0097), nyctalopia (< .0001), poor contrast (P = .002), vibrating vision (P = .014), and poor peripheral vision (P = .007). Lower composite scores were related to worse MD (P = .005). Although nyctalopia and MD are related, each was associated with composites scores on multivariate analysis. Nyctalopia was associated with the largest number of subscales having decreased scores.

Conclusions: Birdshot chorioretinopathy has an impact on vision-specific QOL. BCVA alone does not explain decreased vision-specific QOL in our cohort; changes in automated perimetry and symptoms seem to be important contributors to alterations in QOL that are independent of BCVA changes.