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Abstract #6736 Published in IGR 4-1
Colour contrast sensitivity in ocular hypertension: a five-year prospective study
Fristrom BActa Ophthalmologica Scandinavica 2002; 80: 155-162
PURPOSE: To evaluate a peripheral color contrast sensitivity test as a tool for early diagnosis of glaucoma in a five-year prospective study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Peripheral color contrast sensitivity was measured with a computer graphics system developed by Arden et al. The test colors were varied along the protan, deutan, and tritan color confusion axes on a scale of 0 to 100 percentage units. Fifty-five ocular hypertensive (OH) patients examined with the color contrast test, stereoscopic photography of the optic discs, and measurements of visual fields (Humphrey 24-2 glaucoma hemifield test (GHT) in 1994, were re-examined after five years. RESULTS: Ten patients were 'outside normal limits' on the GHT at follow-up. This group of ten patients did not differ in color contrast thresholds on the test in 1994 from the 45 who were still 'normal' (or 'borderline') at follow-up. Neither were there proportionally more patients with GHT 'outside normal values' in patients with higher color contrast thresholds (>30% units) in 1994 regarding any of the three color axes. As judged from their files, 27 patients had developed glaucoma during the follow-up. Although there were differences between these 27 glaucoma patients and the remaining OH group at the color contrast test in 1994, these differences did not reach statistical significance for any of the color axes (largest difference in the tritan axis: 6.2% units, p = 0.0745). At follow-up, however, there was a significant difference in color contrast for the protan axis between the clinical glaucoma group and the OH group (6.7% units, p = 0.0105). CONCLUSIONS: The method used for color contrast measurement did not reveal glaucomatous changes before conventional perimetry (Humphrey 24-2, GHT). Neither did it predict the patients who, in the authors' clinic, subsequently developed glaucoma during a five-year period. However, a change over time in color contrast in the protan axis for an OH patient may indicate the development of glaucoma.
Dr. B. Fristrom, Department of Ophthalmology, Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden
Classification:
6.6.3 Special methods (e.g. color, contrast, SWAP etc.) (Part of: 6 Clinical examination methods > 6.6 Visual field examination and other visual function tests)
