Eye movement perimetry may be a good alternative to standard perimetry as a diagnostic tool for glaucoma, a new study in the Journal of Glaucoma reports.

A research team from India and the Netherlands created a visual field (VF) probability plot based on saccadic reaction times (SRT) that they feel is comparable to standard automated perimetry. It can show the presence, location and extent of glaucoma defects and, in turn, help support clinicians’ diagnostic decisions, they said in their paper on the study. 

The first leg of the study enrolled 95 controls in five age groups to estimate normal saccadic reaction times. Then, 28 healthy subjects and 24 glaucoma patients underwent standard automated and eye movement perimetry VF testing.

Two glaucoma specialists classified 52 standard automated perimetry and eye movement perimetry plots as either normal or abnormal and identified the defect location and pattern in seven categories.

The glaucoma specialists found a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 93% and 96% for identifying normal compared with abnormal VFs.

The first specialist found a correlation between eye movement perimetry and standard automated perimetry 85% of the time, while the second specialist found similar results between the two methods 92% of the time. The study noted the reports that didn’t agree with standard automated perimetry were graded to a higher defect pattern.