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1 From the Discoveries in Sight, Devers Eye Institute, Portland, Oregon; and the 2 Department of Ophthalmology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. A computer model was designed using factors that influence thresholds of normal and glaucomatous visual fields. The simulation model was used to quantify the effects of fluctuation on the outcomes of pointwise linear regression by comparison with simulated gold standard data with no variability.
RESULTS. Serial sets of 10 stable and 10 progressive visual fields with different fluctuation levels were generated by simulation and were analyzed using pointwise linear regression. Regression outcome measures used were slopes of -1 dB/year or worse and slopes of -1 dB/year or worse that were also statistically significant. In stable visual fields, the number of locations with regression slopes worse than -1 dB/year increased with fluctuation and defect size and was inversely related to the number of fields. The number of locations with statistically significant slopes remained low and appeared unaffected by these variables. In progressive visual fields, analysis of a small number of visual field test results (<8) overestimated the number of locations with regression slopes worse than -1 dB/year and underestimated the number of locations with statistically significant slopes.
CONCLUSIONS. Computer simulation may be used to provide a gold standard outcome that permits evaluation of statistical tools for monitoring progressive glaucomatous visual field loss.
| Introduction |
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To date, methods for detection of glaucomatous visual field progression may be broadly grouped into three categories: subjective clinical criteria, event analyses, and trend analyses. Subjective clinical criteria represent scoring systems that stratify field loss by score and define progression as score change over time. An example of this is the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS) visual field defect score,7 which has a range from 0 (no defect) to 20 (all test locations greatly depressed). However, the empiric basis for this scoring system is not well defined. Evaluation of AGIS scores demonstrates that 16% of individuals have a testretest score change of four or more.8 Although quantification of visual field loss or reduction as a single number is easy to use and interpret, such a drastic reduction of data results in loss of spatial informational content.9 Subjective clinical scoring systems may therefore be unable to detect subtle visual field changes. In addition, there is no evidence that these scales are linear (i.e., a change in score from 2 to 6 may not represent the same change as from 12 to 16).
The second method is event analysis, which is been said to be sensitive to a single event of change relative to a reference examination. An example of this is glaucoma change probability (GCP),10 which calculates the difference in pointwise threshold deviation between a given field and reference mean threshold of a baseline test pair. Changes are compared with the testretest difference distribution for stable glaucoma patients, and locations are highlighted as progressive or improved if the difference falls outside the upper or lower limits (5% and 95% probability levels, respectively) of the distribution. Although this method may identify test locations that appear progressive with as few as three test results, it is dependent on the degree of change exceeding testretest variability, which is high for damaged locations. To maintain reasonable specificity, most investigators have found it necessary to have GCP points outside normal limits to be confirmed on one or more retests.11
The final method is trend analysis, which follows test parameters sequentially over time to determine the magnitude and significance of patterns within the data. Negative trends should exceed expected physiologic age-related loss to be labeled progressive.12 Trend analysis (linear regression) is of value, because it may provide the ability to extract small amounts of loss or signal from variability or noise.13 The time required to detect progression is influenced by factors including underlying rate and type of progression, degree of variability, frequency of examinations, and position of the visual fields within the time series.14 15 16 Trend analyses have been performed on individual test locations (pointwise), glaucoma hemifield test zones, and global indices. It has been suggested that regression analysis of any global index may diminish information from local defects and therefore may not be clinically reliable.17 Studies confirm that pointwise regression detects more cases of progression than global indices, suggesting that it has greater sensitivity, whereas global indices have greater specificity. Use of glaucoma hemifield test zones has been suggested as a compromise.15
It is evident from the literature that there is no consensus on which method of detection of progression is best for differentiating stable defects from progressive loss. This is in part because there is no independent gold standard.18 It is therefore difficult to quantify the success of any tool that may be used for the detection of visual field change.
This article describes a new computer model that simulates longitudinal glaucomatous visual field testing. This approach permits generation of simulated visual field series with chosen levels of fluctuation and progression, allowing comparison of outcomes of statistical analysis from simulated visual field series with no variability with those exhibiting typical glaucomatous variability. We attempt to validate use of simulated data by comparing simulation-based evaluation of pointwise linear regression with data from published clinical evaluations.
| Methods |
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| Results |
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The effect of different levels of fluctuation on the two stable defects (Fig. 2) studied are shown in Figures 3A 3B , 4A and 4B . Figure 3 depicts the effects of varying amounts of short- and long-term fluctuation on a small nasal step defect of mean deviation (MD) -0.27 dB, and Figure 4 shows similar effects for a moderate defect of MD -9.35 dB. The number of locations demonstrating negative regression line slopes of -1 dB/year or worse was strongly affected by any degree of fluctuation (Figs. 3A 4A) . The numbers of such slopes increased with short- and long-term fluctuation and defect size and decreased with the length of follow-up. Short-term fluctuation exerted a greater influence over the number of correctly identified slopes than long-term fluctuation. The number of statistically significant slopes of -1 dB/year or worse was low compared with the number of nonsignificant slopes (Figs. 3B 4B) and never exceeded two locations. The number of such slopes was not affected by fluctuation or defect size within the conditions studied.
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Progressive Glaucomatous Visual Field Defects
Figures 5A
and 5B
present the initial and final visual fields for moderate and
small degrees of progression, respectively. Figures 6A
and 6B
and
7A
and 7B
demonstrate the effect of different levels of fluctuation on
two progressive visual field defects with worsening MD from -0.28 to
-9.35 dB (MD change of -9.08 dB, Fig. 5A
) and from -4.13 to -10.06
dB (MD change of -5.93 dB, Fig. 5B
), respectively. The solid
horizontal line indicates the number of locations undergoing true
progressive changethat is, meeting the slope and significance
criteria when no fluctuation was introduced. The criterion of
slopes -1 dB/year or worse overestimated the true number of
progressive locations, whereas the criterion of statistically
significant slopes of -1 dB/year yielded an underestimation. As
observed for nonprogressive defects, the ability of both outcome
measures to correctly identify progressive locations was related to the
number of test results and decreased with degree of fluctuation. Of the
two outcome measures, the number of significant slopes approached the
true number of progressive locations more rapidly than the number of
nonsignificant slopes.
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| Discussion |
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An alternative approach to producing a gold standard is to replace real patient data with visual field data generated by a computer model. This technique is advantageous, because it permits assessment of progression analysis methods without requiring longitudinal patient data. Additional advantages of this technique include the ability to define the magnitude and type of progression and variability. This model may be constructed to generate a large, clean data set for rigorous statistical analysis using a design that emulates the behavior of a progressive glaucomatous visual field. The major disadvantage of using simulated data is that a poorly designed model may not properly simulate results obtained clinically.
Computer simulation has been used in perimetry to evaluate many threshold strategies28 29 and to study the effects of changing staircase properties on accuracy and efficiency of threshold estimates.5 Spenceley and Henson30 used simulated data to study the effects of increased levels of short-term fluctuation on perimetric threshold. These simulation experiments were able to provide information defining optimal visual field test strategies.
We have designed a computer model for studying visual field progression and analytic tools to detect progression. This procedure models physiological and pathophysiological visual field behavior by taking into account most factors reported to affect threshold variability and by emulating empiric data gathered with conventional full-threshold algorithms. Our model permits control over conditions of progression, and provides information that complements real patient data because simulated longitudinal visual field data can be generated without variability. When any given tool for detection of progression is applied to these data, analysis of simulated data without variability creates a gold standard. This information can be used as the yardstick for comparison with analysis of visual fields simulated from the same input and output data, but with variability added. Assuming that data simulated by the model are representative of empiric findings, the conclusions may then be generalized to patient data.
Use of simulated data to assess the specificity of an analytic tool for detection of progression provides a rigorous standard: Stable glaucomatous visual field data are created from identical baseline and final input data. However, assessment of sensitivity may be influenced by lack of an external standard when simulating progressive conditions, because the simulation model assumes that change between baseline and final fields represents real progression. Because the model uses initial and final empiric input data to simulate a longitudinal visual field series, this assumption is not entirely valid. Although marked defect changes between initial and final empiric data may represent true progression, small differences may be caused by short-term fluctuation or intratest variability present during data collection.
We have attempted to validate our computer model by evaluating pointwise linear regression as a tool for the detection of progression. Our assessment of pointwise linear regression is reinforced by evidence from clinical studies using longitudinal patient data. Our model showed that ability to detect progression by pointwise linear regression depends on the number of test results and on degree of variability, as has been concluded by others.12 14 15 16 For nonprogressive defects, use of slopes worse than or equal to -1 dB/year as an outcome measure without requiring statistical significance makes stable simulated visual fields appear progressive, because many nonprogressive locations are misclassified. This occurs even when fluctuation is conservatively estimated (2 dB short-term fluctuation and 1 dB long-term fluctuation) and 10 simulated annual visual field results are evaluated. Use of significant slopes of -1 dB/year or worse for evaluation of the same stable defects misclassifies some locations as progressive, although their number is small and independent of fluctuation and number of examinations. For simulated progressive defects, locations with a nonsignificant slope overcall and locations with significant slopes undercall the true number of progressing locations. The locations with significant slopes approaches the correct number of progressing locations more quickly than nonsignificant -1 dB/year slopes. Of these two outcome measures, analysis of simulated data indicates that a significant slope of worse than or equal to -1 dB/year is the parameter of choice for discrimination of stability from progression. This outcome measure has been used in previous visual field investigations13 23 that support our simulation findings.
Analysis of simulated data with pointwise linear regression has demonstrated that an inadequate number of examination results may cause misclassification of individuals with progression of visual defects as stable or vice versa, depending on the outcome measure used. We simulated and analyzed data from 20 iterations of two different progressive defects, one with an MD change from -0.28 dB to -9.35 dB and the other from -4.13 dB to -10.06 dB. Assuming that the amounts of short- and long-term fluctuation present in glaucoma are 2 dB and 1 dB, respectively,6 use of simulated data has shown that to correctly identify 75% of all progressing test locations, at least eight annual visual field evaluations are required. Lower accuracy is obtained if fewer test results are used within regression analysis. This is clinically important because clinicians may falsely believe that pointwise linear regression can be used to verify progression with fewer test results. If the real amount of glaucomatous fluctuation is higher than our conservative estimate, more than eight visual field test results are required before this 75% level of accuracy is reached. This finding is supported by investigations of empiric visual field data published by several research groups. For example, Katz et al.15 have shown that use of seven visual field test results performed over a 6-year period could not detect mean sensitivity changes of less than 1 dB/year. Other investigators have estimated that a minimum of 5 or 6 years of annual follow-up is required for pointwise linear regression to reliably detect glaucomatous visual field defect progression.14 16
We have demonstrated use of a computer model to simulate longitudinal visual field data. Analysis of simulated data with pointwise linear regression produced outcomes that were comparable to those obtained previously using empiric data. The results of this simulation study and prior empiric investigations indicate that pointwise linear regression is able to detect progressive field losses of 1 dB/year. However, to maintain high specificity, the slope of the regression line must be significantly different from zero, and a minimum of at least seven to eight annual visual field test results is needed. We intend to use this simulation approach further, to compare the sensitivity and specificity of different approaches to detection of glaucomatous visual field defect progression for different fluctuation conditions and amounts of progression, and to develop new, more robust methods of analyzing visual field changes over time.
| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication November 19, 1999; revised January 31, 2000; accepted February 10, 2000.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
Corresponding author: Paul G. D. Spry, Discoveries in Sight, Devers Eye Institute, 1225 NE Second Avenue, Portland, OR, 97232. pspry{at}discoveriesinsight.org
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