Visual Field Testing

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Your visual field is how wide of an area your eye can see when you focus on a central point. Visual field testing is one way to measure how much vision you have in either eye and how much vision loss may have occurred over time.  A visual field test can determine if you have blind spots (called scotomas) in your vision and where they are located. A scotoma's size and shape can show how an eye disease or a brain disorder is affecting your vision. For example, if you have glaucoma, this test helps to show any possible peripheral vision loss from this disease.  

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The automated static perimetry test is a visual field test to check for a suspected eye problem or monitor the progress of eye disease. It helps create a more detailed map of where you can and cannot see.  To do this test, you will look into the center of a bowl-shaped instrument called a perimeter. The eye not being tested will be covered with a patch. The testing eye will have your lens prescription placed in front of it to make sure you are seeing as well as possible.

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You will be asked to keep looking at a center target throughout the test. Small, dim lights will begin to appear in different places throughout the bowl, and you will press a button whenever you see a light. The machine tracks which lights you did not see.

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Because you are looking straight ahead during the test, your doctor can tell which lights you see outside of your central area of vision. Since glaucoma affects peripheral vision, this test helps show if there is vision loss outside of your central visual field.

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The normal eye can detect light stimuli over a 120º range vertically and a nearly 160-degree range horizontally. From the point of fixation, stimuli can typically be detected 60º superiorly, 70º inferiorly, 60º nasally, and 100º temporally,

 

Visual field testing is an important part of regular eye care for people who are at risk for vision loss from disease and other problems.  People with the following conditions may benefit from visual field testing: 

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• Glaucoma

• Multiple sclerosis

• Thyroid eye disease

• Pituitary gland disorders

• Central nervous system problems (such as a tumor that may be pressing on visual parts of the brain)

• Stroke

• Long-term use of certain medications (such as Plaquenil, or hydroxychloroquine, which requires yearly visual field checkups)

• Diabetes, hypertension

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