Elsevier

Ophthalmology

Volume 118, Issue 2, February 2011, Pages 249-253
Ophthalmology

Original article
Relationship between Severity of Visual Field Loss at Presentation and Rate of Visual Field Progression in Glaucoma

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2010.05.027Get rights and content

Purpose

To evaluate the relationship between severity of visual field (VF) loss at presentation and rate of VF progression in glaucoma.

Design

Clinic-based, retrospective study.

Participants

We included 512 eyes of 310 primary glaucoma patients.

Methods

We analyzed the VFs of all subjects of primary glaucoma who had >5 VFs between 1989 and 2008. Based on the mean deviation (MD), we classified the VF loss as mild (MD > −6 dB), moderate (MD ≤ −6 to ≥ −12 dB) or severe (MD < −12 dB). Guided Progression Analysis software which gives the rate of progression (ROP) of Visual Field Index per year was used to assess the ROP.

Main Outcome Measures

Relationship between severity of VF loss at presentation and ROP.

Results

The median duration of follow-up was 6.8 years. The ROP increased (worsened) by 0.02% per year for every dB worsening of MD (P = 0.02) and for every year of increasing age (P = 0.001). Association between MD and ROP showed a significant positive relationship in mild (β = 0.18; P = 0.001) and a significant negative relationship in severe (β = −0.16; P<0.001) VF loss category. Association between MD and ROP was not significant in the moderate VF loss category (β = −0.05; P = 0.61).

Conclusions

In early stages of glaucoma, the ROP worsened as the severity increased, but, in later stages of the disease, ROP became smaller as the severity increased. There is a need for better methods to detect progression in eyes with severe glaucomatous damage.

Financial Disclosure(s)

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.

Section snippets

Methods

In this clinic-based, retrospective study, all patients diagnosed with primary open-angle (POAG) and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG), who had undergone >5 Humphrey VF examinations (either full threshold or Swedish Interactive Threshold Algorithm-standard, either 24-2 or 30-2, or a combination) between 1989 and 2008 were identified. This study was approved by the ethics committee of the LV Prasad Eye Institute.

For purposes of the study, POAG was defined in the presence of an IOP >21 mmHg,

Results

Five hundred forty-seven eyes of 335 patients, with a diagnosis of either POAG or PACG and treated by a single physician, had undergone >5 Humphrey VF examinations at our institute between 1989 and 2008. Of these, 10 eyes were excluded because of poor reliability. Five eyes that developed vein occlusions, 1 that developed a retinal detachment, and 2 eyes of 1 patient who developed a cerebral infarct during the follow-up were excluded from analysis. We also excluded 17 eyes of 10 subjects (7

Discussion

In this large, clinic-based cohort, managed over a long period of time, we found the ROP in glaucoma to be dependent on the severity of VF loss at presentation, as measured by the MD. We also found that the ROP increased as the severity increased in early stages of glaucoma damage and became smaller as the severity increased in the later stages of the disease. We also demonstrated that linear fit may not represent the association between the ROP in glaucoma and the severity of VF loss at

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  • Cited by (56)

    • Predictive Factors for the Rate of Visual Field Progression in the Advanced Imaging for Glaucoma Study

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      Therefore, methods for using baseline data to stratify the risk of future progression would be most helpful in planning the monitoring frequency and treatment strategy in this situation. While many studies have investigated the factors that predict the risk of developing statistically significant VF progression,2,5,6,15–20 or the factors that influence the average rate of progression in a group of patients,21 few studies have examined factors that predict which glaucoma patients or eyes are more likely to have rapid versus slow rate of VF deterioration.22–24 Furthermore, none of the studies have related the speed of VF progression to baseline OCT findings.

    • Distribution and Rates of Visual Field Loss across Different Disease Stages in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma

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      Because of different vulnerabilities of ganglion cells, the pathophysiology of any patterns of POAG could be different. The rate of VF loss in POAG eyes has been studied by different groups;24–35 however, a comprehensive analysis presenting both patterns and rates of VF loss of POAG eyes using a large cohort with long-term follow-ups has been lacking. We found that the rate of VF loss was faster in eyes at the early stage than in the moderate stage of glaucoma (−0.2 dB/year and −0.12 dB/year, respectively; P = 0.02).

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    Manuscript no. 2010-98.

    Financial Disclosure(s): The authors have made the following disclosures: C. S. Garudadri – Consultant – Allergan and Merck. Funding support by Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation.

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