LOSS OF SENSITIVITY TO MOTION-DEFINED FORM IN PATIENTS WITH PRIMARY OPEN-ANGLE GLAUCOMA AND OCULAR HYPERTENSION

During the past few years many researchers have attempted to find a ps ychophysical test that will identify at an early stage patients at ris k for developing glaucoma. We investigated the ability of a test of mo tion-defined (MD) form recognition to discriminate between patients wi th primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and control subjects and to iden tify patients with ocular hypertension (OHT) at risk for developing gl aucoma. Performance on two MD tests and three tests of static, luminan ce-defined (LD) form recognition was compared. Speed thresholds for re ading MD letters proved to be the most sensitive test of early glaucom atous damage. 80% of POAG and 38% of OHT patients were abnormal on thi s test. During a 3-year follow-up period, 50% of these OHT patients de veloped glaucoma. These psychophysical findings support the hypothesis of early motion deficits in glaucoma. (C) 1996 Optical Society of Ame rica