[First experience with the Heidelberg Edge Perimeter® on patients with ocular hypertension and preperimetric...

The white-on-white computerised static perimetry is not very sensitive to detect a beginning visual field loss. A newer technique to test the central visual field with a flicker defined form technology (FDF) is the Heidelberg Edge Perimeter® (HEP).

A study with 90 eyes from 50 patients (mean age 59 ± 14 years) with ocular hypertension and/or optic nerve suspicious for glaucoma without detectable visual field loss in the Octopus® perimetry (Program dG-2) with the Heidelberg Edge Perimeter® was performed. The "mean defect" (MD), the "pattern standard deviation" and the glaucoma hemifield test (GHT) were calculated and compared with the indices of the Octopus®.

Despite normal visual field findings in the Octopus® perimetry (MD < 2.0 dB) we detected in 48 out of 90 eyes (53 %) pathological visual fields in the HEP examination.

As a new research method the Heidelberg Edge perimetry® seems to be more sensitive than conventional static perimetry in early detection of visual field alterations in patients between ocular hypertension and incipient glaucoma.