Abstract
Purpose :
Visual search is a critical skill for several daily tasks. We reported that patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) presented lower exploratory visual search performance (EVSP) which was correlated with worse visual field (VF) scores (ARVO, 2016). Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial correlation between localized decreases in EVSP and areas of VF loss in POAG eyes with good visual acuity.
Methods :
Twenty-nine normal vision (better than 0.2 logMAR) patients with POAG (mean±SD age: 61±11 years old) underwent a comprehensive ophthalmological examination, including Humphrey VF tests (SITA-Fast 24-2). An explorative search digit-based task was performed using a custom software that quantifies the duration (s) until patients found the number “4” on a random array of digits distributed in five sectors on the screen. Each sector was spatially-matched with the 24-2 VF total deviation (TD) map, after adjusting for the angle and distance. The correlation between mean EVSP (s) and corresponding mean scores of the TD map was tested for each sector using Pearson’s correlation.
Results :
Patients’ VF mean deviation was -8.0±7.9 dB and significantly correlated with global EVSP (6.5±3.8 s; r= -0.45; p= 0.011). EVSP also correlated with the corresponding mean scores of VF in peripheral nasal sectors (superiorly: r= -0.50; p= 0.006 and inferiorly: r= -0.41; p=0.030) and in the peripheral inferotemporal sector (r= -0.44; p=0.016). EVSP in the central and the peripheral superotemporal sectors did not correlate with corresponding mean VF scores.
Conclusions :
Our results are consistent with our hypothesis that losses in peripheral VF sectors are spatially associated with worse corresponding EVSP in patients with POAG. Since all study patients had good visual acuity, these findings underscore the importance of adding visual search tools for evaluating the impact of peripheral VF loss in daily activities of glaucoma patients, such as driving.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.