Common Glaucoma Visual Test Lacks Consideration for Central Vision Loss

A common visual field test used to assess severity of glaucoma—the 24-2 visual field (VF) test—may be underestimating the severity of vision loss in many patients, according to a recent study, as reported by MD Magazine.

Study coauthor Donald C. Hood, PhD, James F. Bender Professor of Psychology and a professor of Ophthalmic Science at Columbia University, noted that early glaucoma typically involves the macula and the 24-2 test, which has now been found to either miss or underestimate damage to patients’ central vision.

“Patients should be tested with 10-2 VF patterns and optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans of both disc and macula,” he said in a statement.

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