Blue-yellow perimetry in the detection of early glaucomatous damage

A perimetric method using blue stimuli on a yellow background was compared with perimetry using white stimuli on a white background as a method of detecting glaucomatous damage. Meridian perimetry was used with an adapted Tübinger perimeter. The difference between the blue-on-yellow meridian and the white-on-white meridian was subdivided into two parts: the general blue sensitivity loss (GBSL), probably due to optical factors, and the corrected blue sensitivity loss (CBSL), probably due to glaucoma. Nine normals, fourteen primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients and nine ocular hypertensives (OHT) were tested. All POAG patients and some of the OHT group showed higher CBSL values than the controls. The blue-yellow meridian showed broader and deeper defects than the white-white meridian in all of the POAG group; some of the OHT group had defects in the blue-yellow meridian that were not present in the white-white meridian. In conclusion, blue on yellow perimetry shows promise as a method for more sensitive detection of early glaucomatous damage.