Retinal-image quality and night-vision performance after alcohol consumption

Purpose. to evaluate the influence of alcohol consumption on the retinal-image quality and visual performance under surrounding low-illumination conditions. methods. a volunteer sample of 67 subjects was analyzed. optical quality of the eye was evaluated by means of the strehl ratio,the objective scattering index (osi),and the tear-film quality. we used the visual disturbance index (vdi) to evaluate visual performance under low-illumination conditions and we measured the pupil size under these conditions. the tear-film volume was also measured. all measurements were made before and after alcohol consumption and patients were classified into two groups depending on their breath alcohol content (brac): low-alcohol (brac < 0.25 mg/l) and high-alcohol content (brac ≥ 0.25 mg/l). results. the vdi was significantly higher after alcohol consumption: the higher the brac,the higher the deterioration of the visual discrimination capacity. the pupil size increased significantly for the high-brac group. parameters evaluating optical quality deteriorated after alcohol consumption. conclusion. the visual performance under low-illumination conditions and the retinal-image quality were deteriorated after alcohol consumption,especially for the high-alcohol group. furthermore,some physiological changes were observed under effects for high-alcohol contents,such as an increase in the pupil size and disturbances in the tear film,which deteriorated optical quality. © 2014 josé j. castro et al.