Clinical Evaluation of Swedish Interactive Thresholding Algorithm-Faster Compared With Swedish Interactive...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Visual field testing
• Glaucoma diagnosis

Background:

• Visual field testing is crucial for diagnosing and monitoring glaucoma.
• The Swedish interactive thresholding algorithm-Standard (SS) is a widely used method.
• The Swedish interactive thresholding algorithm-Faster (SFR) was developed to potentially reduce testing time.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare visual field results between SS and SFR algorithms.
• To assess the time-saving potential of the SFR algorithm.
• To evaluate algorithm performance across normal subjects, glaucoma suspects, and glaucoma patients.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, cross-sectional study involving 364 patients.
• Testing was performed using both SS and SFR on the Humphrey Field Analyzer.
• Test times and reliability rates were compared, with pointwise and cluster analysis.

Main Results:

• SFR showed a higher rate of unreliable results (29.3%) compared to SS (7.7%), mainly due to false positives and seeding errors.
• Modeled test times indicated SFR could yield more reliable results faster.
• SFR demonstrated higher sensitivity, particularly in patients with visual field loss (<19 dB).

Conclusions:

• SFR offers significant time savings over SS when accounting for test reliability.
• Clinicians should be aware of SFR's potential for false positive and seeding point errors.
• Results from SS and SFR are not directly interchangeable, especially with existing visual field deficits.