Visual acuity in optic atrophy: a quantitative clinicopathological analysis.

Analysis of clinicopathological data from 14 eyes with optic atrophy from various causes revealed a simple relationship between visual acuity and the number of surviving axons in the temporal quadrant of the optic nerve head. This provides support for the theory that the minimum angle of resolution (inverse of visual acuity) is directly proportional to the spatial separation of transmitting foveal cones. The theory allows estimation of the functional fraction of foveocortical neural channels from clinical acuity measurements.