Visual Field Testing With Red Targets

• Ten patients with partial temporal visual field defects were examined with a modified tangent screen projection perimeter (Auto-Plot). Defects demonstrated with an isopter for chromatic recognition of a 3-mm red stimulus could always be reproduced with an isopter for achromatic recognition of a dim, 3-mm white stimulus. The red-white intensity ratio producing equivalent fields remained constant for a given patient but varied from subject to subject (range, 3.0 to 7.5; mean, 5.7; SD, 1.8). Thus, red functioned as dim white, but no single fixed ratio of intensities was applicable to all subjects. Visual field testing with 1 foot-candle of tangent screen illumination permitted subjects to adapt to dark. As retinal sensitivities increased, the corresponding visual field steadily enlarged for 30 minutes. This effect was greater in the pathologic temporal fields, which increased relatively more than intact nasal fields. The result was poor visual field reproducibility with time.