1231 Is there always reduced sensitivity in the entire visual field in patients with glaucoma?

Purpose: General reduction of differential light sensitivity in glaucoma is a controversial issue. Purely diffuse visual field loss is not a sign of glaucoma, but it has been postulated that the best parts m the visual field are always affected to some extent. We studied the best parts of the visual field in a material of glaucomatow visual fields. Methods: Humphrey 30-2 threshold tests from 198 eyes of 198 patients with early to moderately advanced glaucoma were eviluated. Glaucoma Hemifield Test (GHT) and General Height (GH Y 7th best/highest test point in the central 24”) were calculated in each field The fields were stratified according to the number (O-10) of abnormal visual field sectors (yielding “OUTSIDE NORMAL LIMITS” OI “BORDERLINE” GHT results). The percentage of fields having E, GH value above the normative median value (supernormal CH) was determined in each strata. Such fields evidently have normal areas. Results: In fields with less than three abnormal sectors (74 fields) the percentage of fields with supernormal GH ranged from 21% to 32%. For fields with 3 or 4 abnormal sectors (45 fields) the percentage ranged from 9% to 13%. GH was subnormal in all fields with mae than 4 abnormal sectors. Conclusions: We conclude that in early glaucoma it is not uncommon that some wsual field areas are entirely normal. The presence of miotics and cataracts m OUI material makes this conclusum even firmer