Long-term follow-up of baseline learning and fatigue effects in the automated perimetry of glaucoma and ocular hypertensive patients.

The detection of change in the visual field is confounded by factors associated with the patient response. Sixteen patients who had previously undergone a training regime in automated perimetry over a short time period were followed up to evaluate the longer term learning and fatigue effects. The patients, all attending a glaucoma clinic, were originally naive to automated perimetry. The training period had comprised examination of the right followed by that of the left eye with the Humphrey Field Analyser 630 on each of 3 successive days and again after an interval of 12 days. The follow-up study comprised two examinations on 2 successive days after a follow-up period of between 5 and 15 months (mean 8.7 months). The learning effects present over the initial training period were not observed at the follow-up whilst the fatigue effects in the fellow eye were still apparent.