Rarebit perimetry and frequency doubling technology in patients with ocular hypertension

To test the capability of rarebit perimetry (RP), a recent non-conventional perimetric technique, in detecting early functional damage in subjects with ocular hypertension (OHT) and to compare RP findings with those obtained by frequency-doubling technology (FDT) perimetry.

Thirty patients with OHT were matched with 30 healthy subjects. All were tested with RP and FDT. Frequency-doubling technology mean deviation (MD) and pattern standard deviation (PSD), as well as RP mean hit rate (MHR), of the two groups were analyzed. The agreement between the two techniques was tested by Kappa analysis.

In the OHT group the mean (SD) FDT MD was 0.5 (2.1), the mean (SD) FDT PSD was 4.2 (1.6), and the mean (SD) RP MHR was 81.4 (6.7). In the control group, corresponding values were mean (SD) FDT MD 1.1 (1.4), mean (SD) FDT PSD 3.0 (0.3), mean (SD) RP MHR 96.2 (2.0). The differences between the two groups were not significant for the studied indexes. Eleven (36.6%) out of the 30 OHT eyes had abnormal RP results; 12 (40.0%) eyes had abnormal FDT results. Five (16.6%) eyes had abnormal RP and FDT findings. Only 1 eye (3.3%) in the control group had abnormal RP results and 3 eyes (10.0%) had abnormal FDT results. RP and FDT showed a moderate agreement (Kappa=0.43; 95% CI: 0.42 to 0.51).

RP and FDT showed VF defects not shown in standard automated perimetry in the OHT group. This may be indicative of an increased risk in developing glaucoma, even if a gold standard for detecting subtle defects is not currently available. RP has the additional advantage of not requiring any expensive device to be used. The poor agreement between these techniques in identifying eyes with early damage warrants further investigations. Large longitudinal studies are needed before defining the role of RP in early glaucoma diagnosis.