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Abstract #6671 Published in IGR 4-1
Visual field defects and neural losses from experimental glaucoma
Harwerth RS; Crawford MLJ; Frishman LJ; Viswanathan S; Smith III EL; Carter Dawson LProgress in Retinal and Eye Research 2002; 21: 91-125
Glaucoma is a relatively common disease in which the death of retinal ganglion cells causes a progressive loss of sight, often leading to blindness. Typically, the degree of a patient's visual dysfunction is assessed by clinical perimetry, involving subjective measurements of light-sense thresholds across the visual field, but the relationship between visual and neural losses is inexact. Therefore, to better understand of the effects of glaucoma on the visual system, a series of investigations involving psychophysics, electrophysiology, anatomy, and histochemistry were conducted on experimental glaucoma in monkeys. The principal results of the studies showed that: (1) the depth of visual defects with standard clinical perimetry are predicted by a loss of probability summation among retinal detection mechanisms, (2) glaucomatous optic atrophy causes a non-selective reduction of metabolism of neurons in the afferent visual pathway, and (3) objective electrophysiological methods can be as sensitive as standard clinical perimetry in assessing the neural losses from glaucoma. These experimental findings from glaucoma in monkeys provide fundamental data that should be applicable to improving methods for assessing glaucomatous optic neuropathy in patients.
Dr. R.S. Harwerth, College of Optometry, University of Houston, 505 J. Davis Armistead Building, Houston, TX 77204-2020, USA. rharwerth@uh.edu
Classification:
5 Experimental glaucoma; animal models
6.6.2 Automated (Part of: 6 Clinical examination methods > 6.6 Visual field examination and other visual function tests)
6.7 Electro-ophthalmodiagnosis (Part of: 6 Clinical examination methods)
