FEASIBILITY OF AUTOMATED VISUAL-FIELD EXAMINATION IN CHILDREN BETWEEN5 AND 8 YEARS OF AGE

Aims-To investigate how young children develop the ability to undergo a visual field evaluation using regular automated perimetry. Methods-T he study included 42 normal girls aged 5, 6, 7, and 8 years. Twelve lo cations in the 15 degrees eccentricity were tested in one eye, using a n Octopus 2000R perimeter with a two level strategy. False positive an d false negative catch trials were presented. The examination was perf ormed three times in succession. Before the examination procedure, a s pecially designed programme was conducted for progressive familiarisat ion. Results-During the familiarisation procedure, it was found that a ll of the 5-year-old children, seven of the 6-year-old children, and t hree of the 7-year-old children were unable to perform immediately, an d correctly, the instructions given during the familiarisation phase; these children took from 30 seconds to 3 minutes to comply with the ex aminer's requests. With the exception of one 5-year-old child, all tes ted subjects completed the planned procedure. The mean proportion of f alse negative answers in catch trials was 1.6%. The mean proportion of false positive answers was 12.2%. The quadratic dependency on age sug gested by the averages was not significant (F(3,116)=0.88; p=0.45). De tection stimulus improved with age, as shown by the fact that probabil ity of perceiving dim stimulus increases significantly (F(3,116)=12.68 ; p < 0.0001). Conclusion-Children did remarkably well regarding both the duration of the examination and the reliability of the answers. A preliminary familiarisation phase with a specially designed adaptation programme was found to be mandatory with children aged 7 or under. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such an investigation has been performed.