The Peritest, a new automatic and semi-automatic perimeter.

The Peritest is a new automatic and semi-automatic (manual) perimeter for detection and limited assessment of visual field defects. It uses either multiple or single stimulus static perimetry. The lightsources are LED's. A total of 206 positions can be examined including the center; 151 positions inside 25 degrees-eccentricity. The programmes use a threshold-related gradient adapted suprathreshold (0.6) strategy. The results are printed on a special chart using non-interpolated grey scales for indicating local reduction of sensitivity. General and local reduction of sensitivity are separated. The progress of the examination can be followed on a LED-monitor. The reliability of the patient is measured. 70% of small early glaucomatous defects (that are only found by high resolution meridional static perimetry) were detected. Such defects are not usually detected by routine kinetic perimetry. More peripheral defects were detected (greater than 25 degrees) than by kinetic perimetry. Due to the relatively high number of stimuli the typical configuration of defects was satisfactorily demonstrated for defects of moderate size and larger. The duration of the examination varies from less than 4 min. for a semi-automatic examination of normal eyes to 10-20 min. for automatic examination of eyes with defects of moderate size (average 15 minutes for 206 positions).