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Decreased post-illumination pupil response may indicate progression of glaucomatous neuropathy
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011;52(5):2287-2292.
Post-illumination pupil response may gradually decrease as glaucomatous optic neuropathy advances, a study found.
The prospective trial assessed 16 patients with glaucoma and 19 age-matched healthy controls who were presented with a 60°, 10-second light stimulus of either 470 nm (blue) or 623 nm (red) in one dilated eye. Patients were observed 50 seconds later for consensual pupil response in the fellow eye.
The response to the blue light stimulus was subtracted by the response to the red light stimulus to yield the net post-illumination pupil response, which was significantly smaller among patients with glaucoma.
Net pupil response was also shown to be inversely correlated with visual field loss in these patients.
"It is clear from our results that measuring [post-illumination pupil response] may provide an additional objective method to detect and monitor glaucoma," the study authors wrote. "Furthermore, given that the [post-illumination pupil response] is significantly associated with visual field severity, monitoring this response over time may provide an objective measurement of progressive [glaucomatous optic neuropathy]."