Ophthalmology

Clinical Screening of Visual Field Defects

It is not rare the case of patients presenting a sudden sight loss in an area of the visual filed and in some cases the examinations they performed reveal a cerebrovascular problem. Researchers have wondered whether it is possible to identify these problems with a simple clinical examination before using more refined techniques (such as NMR) which necessarily imply diagnostic delays. Some researchers in New Zealand have assessed the accuracy of visual field examination in 163 consecutive patients arrived at an ophthalmic centre: 7 comparison tests have been performed and the results have been compared with the ones obtained in a computerized perimetry (which is the reference standard): in about half of the examined eyes, front abnormalities (glaucoma) and back abnormalities (chiasm cancers, stroke) have been identified.
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