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. 1997 Dec;81(12):1037–1042. doi: 10.1136/bjo.81.12.1037

Early detection of visual field progression in glaucoma: a comparison of PROGRESSOR and STATPAC 2

A Viswanathan 1, F Fitzke 1, R Hitchings 1
PMCID: PMC1722087  PMID: 9497460

Abstract

AIM—To compare the performance of PROGRESSOR (pointwise linear regression) and STATPAC 2 (comparison with baseline values) in detecting early deterioration in the visual fields of glaucoma patients.
METHODS—Visual field series from 19 untreated normal tension glaucoma eyes which were deteriorating on clinical grounds were analysed by PROGRESSOR and STATPAC 2. Progression criteria for PROGRESSOR were (1) inner points: slope < −1 dB/year, p < 0.05 and (2) edge points: slope < −2 dB/year, p < 0.05. Criteria for STATPAC 2 were p < 0.05 change probability for any point on three consecutive fields. Detection time was defined as the time interval between the initial field and the first field in which at least one progressing point was identified. Detection times produced by the two techniques were compared.
RESULTS—PROGRESSOR and STATPAC 2 agreed on progression in all 19 eyes. Mean detection time for PROGRESSOR was 1.077 (SD 0.985) years and for STATPAC 2 was 2.161 (1.357) years. PROGRESSOR detected progression sooner than STATPAC 2 in 18 eyes (p < 0.01, Wilcoxon matched pairs signed rank test). PROGRESSOR detected progression earlier by a mean of 1.085 (0.936) years.
CONCLUSIONS—PROGRESSOR consistently detected progression earlier than STATPAC 2. The PROGRESSOR software is a useful tool for the early detection of visual field deterioration in glaucoma.



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Figure 1  .

Figure 1  

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Example of a section of the STATPAC 2 glaucoma change probability analysis. The test location highlighted is labelled as showing significant deterioration in each of the three consecutive fields.

Figure 2A  .

Figure 2A  

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  Example of the cumulative graphical output of PROGRESSOR for Windows for the left eye of an untreated normal tension glaucoma patient with visual field progression. The left pane shows the bar graph output. The right pane shows the locations which satisfy the progression criteria.

Figure 2B  .

Figure 2B  

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  Legend for PROGRESSOR for Windows.

Figure 3  .

Figure 3  

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Drop line graph of detection times for each field series for PROGRESSOR and STATPAC 2. The field series are ranked in order of detection time by PROGRESSOR.

Figure 4  .

Figure 4  

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Histogram of delay in detection associated with STATPAC 2. The mean delay is 1.085 (SD 0.936) years.

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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