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Editors Selection IGR 12-3

Clinical Examination Methods: Smartphone-based perimeters: Are we there yet?

Comment by Chris Johnson on:

The use of inexpensive, portable devices such as tablets and virtual reality headsets to perform visual field testing is an area that is receiving an increased amount of attention. In this view, Dr. Wang and colleagues performed a comparison of the PalmScan VF100 Visual Field Analyzer to the Humphrey Field Analyzer SITA Standard 24-2 test procedure in 81 eyes of 51 patients with glaucoma. Classification of glaucomatous deficits as mild, moderate and severe were performed according to the Hodapp, Parrish and Anderson criteria. The authors report that there was reasonably good agreement between the two devices, but some differences were also noted, indicating that results from the two methods cannot be interchangeable. This is not surprising, given that (1) there was missing information concerning the PalmScan device (test strategy, characteristics of the normative database, refractive correction employed, analysis method, statistical procedures, etc.) and (2) there were difference in the test characteristics of the two devices (background luminance, calibration procedures, dynamic intensity range, eye tracking capability, test strategy, etc.).

The use of portable visual field devices such as virtual reality headsets is still in its infancy and there are presently a wide variety of approaches that are being employed, none of which have been able to achieve the highest degree of compatibility with the methods employed by the Humphrey Field Analyzer

It is therefore not clear what information in the present study is of interest or value to practitioners who read this article. The use of portable visual field devices such as virtual reality headsets is still in its infancy and there are presently a wide variety of approaches that are being employed, none of which have been able to achieve the highest degree of compatibility with the methods employed by the Humphrey Field Analyzer. Although this may be regarded as a problem, it can also be viewed as an opportunity for clinical investigators to approach this challenging topic to refine current procedures. Future investigations should include a larger sample of patients with glaucomatous losses spanning the entire range of peripheral visual impairment.

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