Canadian researchers set out to determine whether 10-2 testing following a finding of 24-2 visual field defects could provide an additional diagnostic benefit. Subjects included patients with early open-angle glaucoma (97 eyes) and 65 healthy controls. All subjects underwent 24-2 and 10-2 tests. Only the 12 central test locations of the 24-2 test were included to analyze equivalent visual field areas. The performance of the 2 tests was compared across 4 pointwise criteria: total deviation and pattern deviation analyses at the 5% and 2% levels. Analyses were also conducted for 2 pairs of follow-up tests, each performed 4 months apart.

In this study of glaucoma patients with early damage using the 24-2 test, there was little evidence that adding the 10-2 test revealed additional undetected defects in the central visual field. It might be more prudent to reserve 10-2 testing for the following of selected patients with a higher risk of progression in the central visual field. The findings were reported in the journal Ophthalmology.