# Perimetry of the Central Visual Field Using a Head-Mounted Open-Source Perimeter in Patients with Inherited Retinal Diseases

## TL;DR

A low-cost head-mounted perimeter was tested for measuring vision in patients with inherited eye diseases, showing promise but with some limitations.

## Contribution

The study is the first to evaluate an open-source head-mounted perimeter for inherited retinal diseases.

## Key findings

- The Iowa-HMP showed typical visual field loss patterns in IRD patients.
- The device had a diagnostic sensitivity of 0.67 and specificity of 0.95 within its dynamic range.
- Open-source software facilitates research in perimetry for inherited retinal diseases.

## Abstract

Head-mounted (“virtual reality”) perimeters (HMPs), based on standard consumer electronic hardware, are a cheaper alternative to standard automated perimetry. They have not been validated in patients with inherited retinal disease (IRDs), yet. We evaluated the Iowa-HMP in a first pilot study. It consists of a legacy smartphone, a headset, and freely available, open-source software. We used the 10-2 grid, the ZEST algorithm, and a background of 10 cd/m2 to measure central visual fields in one normal subject, and in patients with occult macular dystrophy (n = 2), Stargardt’s disease (n = 3) and retinitis pigmentosa (n = 6). Results were compared with those from an Octopus 900 perimeter. The typical patterns of visual field loss were clearly discernible, but head-mounted perimeters generally have a limited dynamic range. Within the dynamic range of the Iowa-HMP (14 to 30 dB Octopus sensitivity), the Limits of Agreement (Bland-Altman) were ±7.5 dB. The Iowa-HMP had a diagnostic sensitivity of 0.67 for detecting locations with low perimetric sensitivity (<14 dB in the Octopus perimetry) with a diagnostic specificity of 0.95. Although the Iowa-HMP cannot be directly compared to standard perimetry in IRDs, open software greatly facilitates research in this area.