Sensitivity and Specificity of Short-Duration Transient Visual Evoked Potentials (SD-tVEP) in Discriminating Normal From Glaucomatous Eyes

Abstract

Short-duration transient VEP objectively identified decreased visual function and discriminated between healthy and glaucomatous eyes, and also showed good differentiation between healthy eyes and those with early visual field loss. VEP may be useful for early diagnosis of glaucoma.

Steady‐state pattern electroretinogram and short‐duration transient visual evoked potentials in glaucomatous and healthy eyes

“…The ss‐PERG is known to specifically represent the function of the RGCs themselves, and RGCs are damaged in the pathophysiology of glaucoma . SD‐tVEP is a measure of a function of the entire visual pathway from the photoreceptors to the visual cortex and therefore may not be as sensitive to dysfunction of the RGCs themselves …”

“…A study by Parisi et al found that an increased P100 latency of transient VEP had a sensitivity and specificity of 100% for detecting glaucoma. 24,25,32 The difference in SD-tVEP results between the two studies may be explained by differing study populations, study designs, levels of disease severity among tested patients or the reduced sample size after applying exclusion criteria.…”

“…34 SD-tVEP is a measure of a function of the entire visual pathway from the photoreceptors to the visual cortex and therefore may not be as sensitive to dysfunction of the RGCs themselves. 24,25 The use of PERG and VEP to measure the functional status of the RGCs and visual pathway, respectively, has been well established. The value add of electrophysiological techniques in a diagnostic environment dominated by highly effective tools such as OCT is the addition of an objective functional perspective to the diagnosis of glaucoma.…”

“…This test is usually performed in tertiary referral centres and until recently was very rarely used in an office‐based setting. A newly developed method called the short‐duration transient VEP test (SD‐tVEP; Diopsys Inc.) is a modified VEP test that was recently introduced . The SD‐tVEP test has a reduced testing time of 38 s per eye and produces a larger signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) than the traditional VEP method with a good repeatability in a previous study .…”

“…A newly developed method called the short-duration transient VEP test (SD-tVEP; Diopsys Inc.) is a modified VEP test that was recently introduced. 22,[24][25][26] The SD-tVEP test has a reduced testing time of 38 s per eye and produces a larger signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than the traditional VEP method with a good repeatability in a previous study. 26 Prata et al have previously confirmed that SD-tVEP can detect visual dysfunction in glaucomatous eyes.…”