Automated perimetry in detecting threats to fixation.

Abstract

To study in glaucoma patients the threat to fixation on a Humphrey field analyzer program 10-2 when one of the four innermost paracentral points is defective on program 30-2. Forty-five eyes of 45 patients with chronic open-angle glaucoma in whom at least one of the innermost four defective paracentral points was reproducibly defective on program 30-2 of the Humphrey perimeter, with a size 3 target, on two consecutive tests, were studied with program 10-2. Of the 45 eyes with an abnormal paracentral point of program 30-2, 30 (66%) also showed involvement of a paracentral point on program 10-2, which was considered a threat to fixation. The remaining 15 were considered not to threaten fixation imminently. In about one third of glaucomatous fields considered to threaten fixation on the standard programs 30-2 and 24-2, the threat was not imminent. The extra evaluation is therefore useful before making radical and precipitous changes in management of the disease.