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| ARTICLES |
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| Year : 1982 | Volume
: 30
| Issue : 5 | Page : 469-470 |
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The value of colour fields in diagnosing brain tumours
TR Swaminathan, P Narendran
Deptt of Neurology Govt. General Hospital : Madras, India
Correspondence Address:
T R Swaminathan
Deptt. of Neurology, Govt General Hosptal, Madras
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
How to cite this article:
Swaminathan T R, Narendran P. The value of colour fields in diagnosing brain tumours. Indian J Ophthalmol 1982;30:469-70 |
We are presenting a study of fourteen cases of tumours in the region of the pituitary gland with particular reference to the defects caused in peripheral field; those caused by a 3/330 mm white object as compared to that of 10/330 mm Red object. Field changes in pituitary tumours are early and often diagnostic.
Even though it is said that the results obtainable with colour test objects are more easily obtained by use of smaller visual angle white test objects our experiments are different. In a patient who is suffering from a neurological disorder with poor visual acuity and altered mental status the ability to recognise a small test object say I mm white is found to be poor, while he is able to appreciate a larger coloured object like 10/330 mm red. The patient evinces a little more than a routine interest when he is asked to identify a changing colour rather than the identification of a white test object. We are also able to have a check up of the accuracy of his statement as the colour can be changed at our will; the only snag is that the patient must not be colour blind and the colour must be recognised by the hue not by the shade.
| Observations and discussion | |  |
Only in 6 patients field charting in both eyes was possible. In 2 patients the field for 3 mm white object was full in one eye. In rest of them there were variable amount of loss of temporal field or an irregular general constriction. In one case the binasal field loss was present and this was a case of craniopharyngioma.
Peripheral field by 10mm red object was disproportionately constricted, while it did not follow the geometrical pattern of the white field in all the isopters. Red field were also constricted in those two cases where white field appeared to be normal In two cases where the white field was very much constricted in one eye the red object was not recognised at all.
It was not possible to determine the kind of tumour or its relation to the optic nerve. i.e , prefixed. postfixe j, etc by the field studies alone.
Plain X-ray studies of the skull and sellar region in all cases showed changes suggestive of a space occupying lesion which was confirmed by carotid angiogram excepting in two cases which showed changes in Pneumo Encephalogram.
| Summary | | |
The use of colour object in perimetry which has been relegated to a minor role by Harrington and which has gone to the background in the presence of sophisticated instruments that have cropped up, is still an important tool in suspected tumours of the pituitary region. This is all the more important in those cases associated with progressive loss of vision without any other sign and this makes their appearance much earlier than even the changes seen in the x-rays, and this test is easier to perform than the routine type of field charting with different sized white objects.
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