Investigating the clinical usefulness of definitions of progression with 10-2 visual field

Background/Aim To investigate the clinical validity of the Guided Progression Analysis definition (GPAD) and cluster-based definition (CBD) with the Humphrey Field Analyzer 10-2 test in diagnosing glaucomatous visual field (VF) progression, and to introduce a novel definition with optimised specificity by combining the 'any-location' and 'cluster-based' approaches (hybrid definition). Methods 64 400 stable glaucomatous VFs were simulated from 664 pairs of 10-2 tests (10 sets x 10 VF series x 664 eyes; data set 1). Using these simulated VFs, the specificity to detect progression and the effects of changing the parameters (number of test locations or consecutive VF tests, and percentile cut-off values) were investigated. The hybrid definition was designed as the combination where the specificity was closest to 95.0%. Subsequently, another 5000 actual glaucomatous 10-2 tests from 500 eyes (10 VFs each) were collected (data set 2), and their accuracy (sensitivity, specificity and false positive rate) and the time needed to detect VF progression were evaluated. Results The specificity values calculated using data set 1 with GPAD and CBD were 99.6% and 99.8%. Using data set 2, the hybrid definition had a higher sensitivity than GPAD and CBD, without detriment to the specificity or false positive rate. The hybrid definition also detected progression significantly earlier than GPAD and CBD (at 3.1 years vs 4.2 years and 4.1 years, respectively). Conclusions GPAD and CBD had specificities of 99.6% and 99.8%, respectively. A novel hybrid definition (with a specificity of 95.5%) had higher sensitivity and enabled earlier detection of progression.

Automated summary

In this study, researchers investigated the clinical validity of different definitions for diagnosing glaucomatous visual field progression using the Humphrey Field Analyzer 10-2 test. A novel hybrid definition with optimized specificity was introduced, showing higher sensitivity and earlier detection of progression than existing definitions.