[Diffuse and localized glaucomatous visual field changes in light sense, flicker and visual acuity perimetry. Evidence of pressure damage].

75 eyes of 75 patients with different types of glaucoma (21 eyes with normal-tension glaucoma, 49 eyes with primary open-angle glaucoma and 5 eyes with pigmentary glaucoma) were examined by automated light-sense, flicker and resolution perimetry. All fields were classified as being "normal" (N) or having "diffuse loss" (D), "localized loss" (L) and "diffuse plus localized loss" (DL) in masked fashion. The frequency distributions for the various field loss categories against the highest intraocular pressure ever reported in the patients' records were plotted. The frequency distributions for the purely localized defects show a peak at 20 mmHg and are markedly skewed to low pressure values, while the diffuse plus localized damage and the purely diffuse loss, however, show a peak at about 30 mmHg. The data support the hypothesis that diffuse field loss may be an indicator of pressure-induced damage.