Saccadic movements during an exploratory visual search task in patients with glaucomatous visual field loss

• Published in: Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia 2024-01, Vol.87 (3), p.e20220366-e20220366
• Main Authors: Oliveira, Mirella Almeida, Senger, Cassia, Souza, Raquel Pantojo, Moraes, Carlos Gustavo de, Messias, André, Paula, Jayter Silva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Glaucoma, Open-Angle; Humans; OPHTHALMOLOGY; Original; Saccades; Vision Disorders - diagnosis; Visual Field Tests; Visual Fields
• ISSN: 0004-2749; 1678-2925; 1678-2925
• DOI: 10.5935/0004-2749.2022-0366

To evaluate the saccadic movements of patients with visual field loss due to primary open-angle glaucoma. Thirteen patients with good visual acuity (0.2 logMAR or better) (seven patients with primary open-angle glaucoma 65 ± 13 years) and six controls (51 ± 6 years) yielded a comprehensive ophthalmological examination, including Humphrey Visual Field tests (SITA-Standard 24-2), and performed a monocular, exploratory digital visual search task that quantifies the duration for finding the number "4" on a random array of digits distributed on the screen. After individual adjustments of the angle and distance positioning, the screen was spatially matched with the 24-2 visual field, and divided into five areas for analysis. During the task, saccades were simultaneously recorded in the same eye with a video-based eye tracker. The patients with primary open-angle glaucoma showed a significantly higher number of saccades/screen (median ± interquartile range, 59.00 ± 29.00 vs. 32.50 ± 19.75 saccades (p=0.027) and visual search time per screen (38.50 ± 60.14 vs. 23.75 ± 8.90 seconds (p=0.035) than the controls did. Although the univariate analysis indicated a significant correlation with visual field mean deviation (coefficient=26.19 (p=0.02), only the visual search time/screen was significantly associated with the number of saccades/screen in the multivariate regression model (coefficient=0.55 (p