A statistical trap in the evaluation of visual field decay.
Computerized perimetry has made it possible to evaluate quantitatively the visual field decay in glaucoma and other cases. The performance fluctuates with considerable amplitude and therefore the heart of the matter concerns the detection of a signal in presence of noise. How insufficient number of observations and uncautious sampling may result in false conclusions as to the effect of therapy etc is described in the present paper.
D005901:Glaucoma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014794:Visual Fields