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AGIS, CIGTS note higher specificity, but fewer cases of glaucoma progression
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Two well-known glaucoma detection methods have high specificity rates, but classify fewer cases of progression than other methods, a long-term study has found.
Eija Vesti and colleagues with the Devers Eye Institute in Portland, Ore. took initial and final visual field results, separated by 7 years, of 76 patients with open-angle glaucoma to determine the performance of common detection methods.
The Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS), the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study (CIGTS), three criteria based on the Glaucoma Change Probability (GCP) analysis and two criteria based on point-wise linear regression analysis were used. Variability ranged from none to moderate and high, generated by a computer simulation program for 14 interim semiannual visual fields.
Progression rates were 18% for AGIS, 36% for CIGTS, ranged from 47% to 62% for the three GCP methods and ranged from 72% to 84% for the two regression methods. The three GCP methods showed progression rates increasing with greater variability; all other methods saw progression rates decreasing with greater variability.
The time to detect confirmed glaucoma progression was shortest for CIGTS and GCP methods, longest with the regression analysis.
The study is published in the September issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.