Computerized profile perimetry in glaucoma

A. Heijl and S. M. Drance

The new profile testing mode of the COMPETER automatic perimeter was clinically tested and compared with careful manual profile perimetry on the Tubinger perimeter. Each of 110 patients with glaucomatous field defects, patients with suspected glaucoma, and normal subjects had one meridian tested. All of the 55 patients who showed an abnormal result on the manual profile also had abnormal findings on the automatic test. Two (4%) of the profiles labeled as normal on initial manual perimetry were identified by the automatic perimeter to be abnormal, and these defects were confirmed on repeated manual profile perimetry. The automatic perimetry gave five (9%) false-positive results in the 53 normal manual profiles, thus giving a specificity of 91%. In two of these cases, the automatic profile indicated defects in areas where the manual profile appeared normal, but there was abnormality in the manual kinetic perimetry in the affected area. The automatic profiles of the COMPETER automatic perimeter are accurate, sensitive, time-saving, and clinically useful.