Video color perimetry: impairment in glaucoma suspects.

Abstract

To detect mild visual field impairment in asymptomatic glaucoma suspect patients. Color perception within the visual field was tested with customized color video perimetry. The key features of the system were stimuli color desaturation, low-level luminance and equiluminant gray background. Twenty patients with asymptomatic glaucoma were tested and compared with a group of age-matched control subjects. Automated perimetry test findings differed significantly in the two groups, particularly for short-wavelength sensitivity (blue). The severity of color impairment correlated directly with intraocular pressure. Desaturated low-luminance video perimetry will reliably detect and quantify asymptomatic visual field defects. A previous work on multiple sclerosis has detected a mild long-wavelength (red) impairment in asymptomatic patients after an episode of optic neuritis, even in clinically unaffected fellow eyes. Our findings in glaucoma suspect patients indicate that a mild blue impairment could be the initial sign of this disease.