Original articleHow Does Glaucoma Look?: Patient Perception of Visual Field Loss
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
The target population for this study was patients with glaucoma between 50 and 80 years of age with a range of VF loss in both eyes. Patients were recruited from a convenience sample from Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, and all had an established clinical diagnosis of primary open-angle glaucoma in both eyes. Glaucomatous VF loss was defined as repeatable Glaucoma Hemifield Test results outside normal limits according to the Humphrey Field Analyzer (HFA;
Results
The mean age of the 50 patients was 70 years (standard deviation [SD], 7 years). Twenty-six of the patients (52%) were female. The patients had a range of VF defect severity: average HFA 24-2 MD was −8.7 dB (SD, 5.8 dB), −10.5 dB (SD, 7.1 dB), and −7.3 dB (SD, 5.7 dB) in the right eye, left eye, and best eye (BEMD), respectively. The mean binocular CS and visual acuity of the patients was 1.8 Pelli-Robson log CS (SD, 0.18 PR log CS) and 0.07 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution units
Discussion
This study provided some evidence, from patients themselves, about the visual symptoms of glaucoma. The study sample represented a population of patients with a range of VF loss in both eyes (Fig 2B), with more than one fifth having quite advanced VF loss (MD worse than −12 dB in both eyes). Twenty-six percent of the patients (typically with better MD values) reported no visual symptoms, confirming the frequently reported asymptomatic nature of the disease even in the presence of diagnosed
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Ryo Asaoka for his help with patient recruitment and ophthalmic examinations.
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Manuscript no. 2012-1146.
Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
Supported by a research grant from the International Glaucoma Association. The sponsor had no role in the design or conduct of this research. Dr. Crabb's research laboratory is funded in part by unrestricted grants from Allergan, Inc., and the Investigator-Initiated Studies Programme of Merck Sharp & Dohme, Ltd. Dr. Garway-Heath was supported by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre based at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Institute of Ophthalmology.