PERIPHERAL CONE CONTRAST SENSITIVITY IN GLAUCOMA

Colour vision tests for detection of glaucomatous damage frequently su ffer from two problems: most tests are confined to foveal vision, wher eas defects tend to appear first extrafoveally; and the modulation dir ections in colour space are not optimal. This paper deals with periphe ral testing a la Yu, Falcao-Reis, Spileers and Arden [(1991) Investiga tive Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 32, 2779-2789], and investigate s whether there are modulation directions that show preferential sensi tivity reduction in glaucoma. In 14 eyes with early glaucoma, 17 risk eyes and 10 normals, 12 deg peripheral colour contrast thresholds were determined for L, M, S, L - M and L + M test directions. Threshold el evations were correlated in all test directions, with S modulation yie lding the largest elevations.