[Clinical applications of time-dependent perimetry (10) receptive field properties of glaucoma patients].

The receptive field center of double flash resolution (DFR) and of critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) in a 3 degrees temporal visual field were examined in 11 normal subjects and 19 glaucoma and ocular hypertension patients. In normal subjects, the mean receptive field center of DFR was 2.17 log min of arc2 and that of CFF was 2.55 log min of arc2. In many glaucoma and ocular hypertension cases, the receptive field center of DFR (mean:2.48 log min of arc2) was significantly enlarged and came close to that of CFF (mean:2.53 log min of arc2)(p < 0.01). Although these findings were mostly seen in patients with some visual field changes, they were also encountered in 9 (70%) of the 13 cases with ocular hypertension without any visual field changes and are probably related to poor intraocular pressure control. We considered that the result was due to the dysfunction of the surrounding area of DFR that consists of interaction between sustained and transient functions of the visual pathway. This dysfunction could be closely related to the disorder of alpha-cells that occurs in the early stage of glaucoma.