Abstract
Purpose:
To assess the reliability of Swedish Interactive Thresholding Algorithm Fast (SITA Fast) visual fields in pediatric patients and compare whether age or severity of vision loss influence performance.
Methods:
Charts from pediatric patients 18 years old or younger who underwent visual field testing from May 2010 through October 2013 at the Pediatric Eye Clinic at the University of Minnesota were retrospectively reviewed. Patients included had at least one 24-2 SITA Fast visual field test. For patients that had multiple visual fields only the first visual field was included. The diagnosis, visual acuity and age of the patients were recorded.
Results:
196 eyes of 102 patients (age 11.7 ± 3.24 years old) were included. The diagnosis for the patients included brain tumors, optic nerve tumors, glaucoma, papilledema, adrenoleukodystrophy, and optic neuritis. Mean reliability parameters were: 7.6 ± 14.07% of false positives (FP), 7.72 ± 10.1% false negatives (FN), 33.88 ± 32.23% fixation losses (FL). The mean test duration was 4.13 ± 1.07 minutes. Patients were divided in three groups defined a priori that differed in age but had comparable degree of visual field impairement as measured by visual field index (VFI), mean defect (MD) and pattern standard deviation (PSD). Group 1 was 5-10 years old (n= 83), group 2 was 11-14 years old (n=61) and group 3 was 15-18 years old (n=52). There were no statistical significant differences in VFI, MD or PSD among the three groups. The mean VFI was respectively 83.89, 87.95 and 90.90 (ANOVA test p=0.132) for groups 1, 2 and 3. Mean value of MD was -6.01 ± 8.8, -6.04 ±7.6 and -4.64 ±16.1 (p=0.549) and mean PSD was 4.5 ± 3.4, 3.3 ± 2.6 and 3.45 ± 3.2 (p=0.051). Reliability paramenters were statistically significantly different between the three age groups with 45.5% of fixation losses in group 1, 20.18% in group 2 and 31.3 in group 3 (p<0.001). FP were 11.72%, 3.82% and 5.4% for groups 1, 2 and 3 (p=0.001). FN were 9.88%, 5.88% and 6.44% p=0.038. Test duration was 4.36, 3.57 and 3.54 minutes (p<0.001) for groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
Conclusions:
SITA fast VF tests can be perfomed in children from age 5 and are often a reliable method for assessing visual field impairement. Reliability parameters are better in older children and test duration time shortens with increased age of children.
Keywords: 642 perimetry •
758 visual fields •
466 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: treatment/prevention assessment/controlled clinical trials