Photophobia and disability glare in adult patients with Marfan syndrome: a case-control study.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate photophobia and disability glare in adult patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS).

Methods: In this case-control study, 44 patients with MFS (87 eyes) were compared to 44 controls (88 eyes), who were matched for age and sex. The subjects were asked to grade their photophobia and glare using 10-cm visual analogue scales (VAS), which were marked with 'never' at zero and 'always' at 10 -cm. In addition, disability glare was measured with C-Quant straylight meter.

Results: The patients with MFS had significantly higher VAS scores than the controls in four out of seven statements related to photophobia and glare. When including cataract, spherical equivalent, iris colour, axial length and corneal curvature, three of the seven statements were still significantly different between the two groups. The mean straylight values were 1.29 ± 0.03 log(s) in the MFS group and 1.01 ± 0.03 log(s) in the control group (p < 0.001, mixed model). These differences remained significant after adjusting for cataract, spherical equivalent, iris colour, axial length and corneal curvature.

Conclusion: Patients with MFS reported more photophobia and had a higher straylight value than the control group. Awareness of these findings of more photophobia and glare in the MFS patients is important when counselling and treating these patients.