Figure 2: a, Baseline, average eye, low-contrast near visual acuity was inferior to that of high-contrast letters by at least 2 lines. By 12 months, the Colenbrander low-contrast letters were better visualized with either lutein (+7.2 letters, P = 0.04) or lutein plus zeaxanthin (+8.8 letters, P=0.02) but non-significantly improved with zeaxanthin alone (14.3 letters, P value not significant). 2b, Baseline, average eye, and final AUC CSF (at 5 spatial frequencies) for lutein (difference improvement, +48%; P=0.05) and zeaxanthin (+24%; P=0.09 for trend) but surprisingly not for and lutein plus zeaxanthin (+20%; not significant). 2c, Blue cones, equally spaced within the parafovea provide an independent measure of parafoveal function. Of all 3 intervention groups, lutein proved best (P=0.09 for trend ANOVA at 8m and P= 0.05 ANOVA at 12 m). 2d, GR (seconds) improvement was significant for lutein (P=0.02) and particularly the combined lutein plus zeaxanthin group (P=0.002) with only a trend for improvement with the zeaxanthin subgroup (P=0.09), paired t test (baseline to 12 months). PERMISSION PENDING, Richer SP, Stiles W, Graham-Hoffman K, Levin M, Ruskin D, Wrobel J, Park DW, Thomas C, Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of zeaxanthin and visual function in patients with atrophic age-related macular degeneration: The Zeaxanthin and Visual Function Study (ZVF) FDA IND #78, 973, Optometry, 2011: 82, 667-80.