Static versus kinetic testing in the nasal peripheral field in patients with glaucoma

One-hundred and seventy-seven subjects (207 eyes) were tested on the Humphrey Field Analyzer to evaluate the usefulness of static and kinetic peripheral nasal visual field testing in identifying glaucomatous defects. In 20 of the 187 glaucomatous or ocular hypertensive eyes glaucomatous defects were found in the peripheral nasal field while the central 30 degrees remained normal or showed non-specific diffuse depression. Kinetic peripheral nasal field testing identified 17 of these eyes while the static testing identified eleven. This difference was not statistically significant (P greater than 0.05, Stuart-Maxwell test). Twenty control eyes showed one glaucomatous peripheral nasal defect on static testing, and none with kinetic testing. These results differed statistically from the diagnoses in the diseased population (P less than 0.005, chi 2-test). This study suggests the potential value of nasal peripheral field testing in selected glaucoma patients for which static testing has no apparent diagnostic advantage over kinetic techniques.