Novel head-mounted virtual reality perimeter shows good performance
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
A novel virtual reality head-mounted perimetry device showed “excellent” correlation with standard automated perimetry and a high ability to discriminate between healthy and glaucomatous visual fields.
VisuALL (Olleyes) allows patients to perform visual field testing at home, wearing their own spectacles without eye patching. Each eye is stimulated by a separate screen at a distance of 60.5 mm from the eye and completely isolated from the fellow eye. An eye-tracking system automatically adjusts the location of the stimulus. The headset is connected to a hand-held response button and to a computer, tablet or smartphone. Results are saved and cloud-shared with the treating physician.
A study comparing the performance of VisuALL with visual field testing by Humphrey field analyzer (Carl Zeiss Meditec) was performed at the glaucoma service of Wills Eye Hospital, including 50 normal eyes and 52 eyes with mild to severe open-angle glaucoma.
Results of the two methods were comparable, with significant correlation of mean retinal sensitivity of the whole visual field and all quadrants in both the healthy and glaucomatous groups. The VisuALL was able to successfully discriminate healthy and glaucomatous visual fields.
According to the authors, this new method could overcome disadvantages of standard perimetry devices, including units that are “bulky, heavy and expensive” and “require dedicated office space and constant monitoring by technicians.” In addition, patients usually dislike standard visual field testing and find it difficult to understand and stressful. Some complain of claustrophobic sensations and postural discomfort.
The VisuALL has the potential to reduce these burdens, the authors said. “Among the positive features, patients can be tested in virtually any position, and their head can be freely moved during the test without needing to stop the test. It improves the patient’s comfort and may decrease the test-induced fatigue and improve testing patients with cervical or spinal disease, weight issues and body habitus that makes positioning in a standard perimeter difficult. It also will allow visual field testing for hospitalized or bedridden patients,” they wrote.
They also noted that the use of this device is compatible with telemedicine, remote testing and monitoring.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts