Multichannel functional testing in normal subjects, glaucoma suspects, and glaucoma patients.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate visual function with a novel multichannel functional test named the ATD Multichannel Functional Test.


METHODS
This multicenter study had a prospective and cross-sectional design. A total of 186 eyes were included: 42 with glaucoma, 14 glaucoma suspects due to optic nerve characteristics, 25 ocular hypertensives, and 105 normal eyes. All patients performed standard visual fields (Humphrey 24-2) and ATD with eight stimuli configurations: four achromatic (A), two red-green (T), and two blue-yellow (D). To derive main outcome measures, mean sensitivity, mean defect (MD), and pattern standard deviation (PSD) were calculated and compared among groups and types of stimuli with the Kruskal-Wallis test. The percentage of cases outside normal limits (ONL) was calculated.


RESULTS
MD and PSD were significantly different in glaucoma eyes than in normal subjects for all types of stimuli except D-0.5 cycles per degree (cpd)/12Hz. PSD was also lower for normals than for all pathologic groups with A-4cpd/2Hz, A-4cpd/12Hz, D-0.5cpd/2Hz, and T-0.5cpd/2Hz. The highest percentage of ONL cases was obtained with the two low-spatial-frequency chromatic stimuli, with D-0.5cpd/2Hz and T-0.5cpd/2Hz using PSD, which classified as ONL 81.6% and 86.7% of glaucoma eyes, 51.8% and 44.5% of hypertensives, and 72.2% and 41.2% of optic disc suspects, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
ATD assessed different aspects of visual function, and the most sensitive tests to detect glaucomatous damage were the low-temporal-frequency chromatic tests.
Institut Catalá de Retina, Barcelona, Spain. anton@icrcat.com
Alfonso
A
Antón
Pascual
P
Capilla
Antonio
A
Morilla-Grasa
María José
MJ
Luque
José María
JM
Artigas
Adelina
A
Felipe
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003118:Color Perception; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009798:Ocular Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis; D009901:Optic Nerve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014794:Visual Fields