Abstract
Purpose :
Traditional glaucoma evaluation relies heavily on the use of 24-2 and 10-2 visual fields. 60-4 visual fields are less commonly used, as they measure more peripheral visual field and are thought to potentially be affected by facial anatomy. However, there is diagnostic value in measuring extended peripheral visual fields for glaucoma as well as for retinal pathologies. It is unknown whether there are expected visual field threshold differences between normal male and female eyes related to inherent anatomical differences between sexes.
Methods :
For this prospective study, subjects with no known ocular pathology were enrolled at a tertiary referral center. Included subjects required normal ophthalmological examinations and optic nerve ocular coherence tomography. All subjects underwent a 60-4 Swedish interactive thresholding algorithm (SITA) visual field test of each eye. These were compared to predicted 60-4 visual fields based on facial contour created using 3-dimensional facial reconstruction models that have been previously described. Male and female visual fields were compared.
Results :
86 eyes of 46 healthy subjects were included in this study, of which 60 were female and 26 were male. The mean age was 33.1 +/- 10.4 years old. The mean threshold value was 1696.9 +/- 124.6 decibels (dB), with a significantly higher mean threshold in females than males at 1716.5 +/- 105.0 vs. 1651.5 +/- 153.9 dB, respectively, p=0.013. On predicted visual fields, males showed more prominent nasal and brow-related peripheral visual field defects than females.
Conclusions :
This study highlighted that males have more physiologic peripheral visual field defects than females. Predicted and actual 60-4 visual fields suggest that differences in facial contour between sexes account for the difference in measurable 60-4 visual field. Further studies are required to identify expected physiological visual field defects and separate them from pathological defects in patients with glaucoma.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.