Measuring Visual Field Progression in the Central 10 Degrees Using Additional Information from Central 24 Degrees Visual Fields and ‘Lasso Regression’

PURPOSE: To measure progression of the visual field (VF) mean deviation (MD) index in longitudinal 10-2 VFs more accurately, by adding information from 24-2 VFs using Lasso regression. METHODS: A training dataset consisted of 138 eyes from 97 patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension and a testing dataset consisted of 40 eyes from 34 patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The Lasso method was used to predict total deviation (TD) values in training patients’ 10-2 VFs based on information from their 24-2 VFs (52 TD values, foveal sensitivity and mean deviation MD). Then, the MD of each patient’s 10-2 VF was estimated as the average of these Lasso-predicted TD values (10-2 VF ‘Lasso MD’; LMD). Finally, linear regression was applied to each testing patient’s series of longitudinal 10-2 VF MDs with and without additional Lasso-derived LMDs in order to predict future MDs not included in the regression analysis. Absolute prediction errors were compared when only actual 10-2 MDs were regressed against when a combination of actual 10-2 MDs and LMDs were regressed. RESULTS: The average absolute prediction error was significantly smaller for the novel method incorporating LMDs (range: 1.6 to 1.8 dB) compared with the standard approach (range: 1.7 to 3.4 dB) (p<0.05, ANOVA test). CONCLUSIONS: Deriving 10-2 VF MD values from 24-2 VFs improves the prediction accuracy of progression. This approach will help clinicians to predict patients’ visual function in the parafoveal area.