Hazard Detection During Simulated Driving in Glaucoma Patients.

PRCIS: In this cross-sectional study, glaucoma patients showed slower reaction times (RTs) to hazardous situations when compared with control subjects during simulated driving. Worse RTs were associated with a greater magnitude of visual field loss. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of different hazardous traffic conditions on driving performance in glaucoma patients using a high-fidelity driving simulator. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was performed with 52 glaucoma patients and 15 control subjects. A series of hazard scenarios were presented, such as pedestrians crossing the street unexpectedly or vehicles suddenly pulling into the driver's lane. RTs in seconds (s) from first the evidence of a hazard to the time it took the driver to take the foot off the gas pedal ("Gas Off") and the time it took to depress the brake pedal ("Brake On") were compared between groups. RESULTS: Overall, mean RTs were statistically significantly slower in glaucoma patients (3.39±3.88 s) compared with controls (2.39±1.99 s; P =0.005) for the "Brake On" task but not for the "Gas Off" task (2.74±3.42 vs. 2.13±1.91 s, respectively; P =0.120). For subjects with glaucoma, multivariable models adjusted for age, gender, race, and visual acuity demonstrated significantly slower RTs for worse values of binocular mean sensitivity for both "Gas Off" and "Brake On" tasks (1.12 and 1.14 s slower per 10 dB worse; P =0.009 and P <0.001, respectively). Subjects with glaucoma took significantly longer times to brake for smaller (low saliency) hazards compared with larger (high saliency) hazards ( P =0.027). CONCLUSIONS: RTs in response to hazardous driving situations were slower for glaucoma patients compared with controls. Individualized assessment of driving fitness using hazardous scenarios in driving simulators could be helpful in providing an assessment of driving risk in glaucoma patients.

Wayfinding and Glaucoma: A Virtual Reality Experiment.

Purpose: Wayfinding, the process of determining and following a route between an origin and a destination, is an integral part of everyday tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of glaucomatous visual field loss on wayfinding behavior using an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 31 glaucomatous patients and 20 healthy subjects without evidence of overall cognitive impairment. Wayfinding experiments were modeled after the Morris water maze navigation task and conducted in an immersive VR environment. Two rooms were built varying only in the complexity of the visual scene in order to promote allocentric-based (room A, with multiple visual cues) versus egocentric-based (room B, with single visual cue) spatial representations of the environment. Wayfinding tasks in each room consisted of revisiting previously visible targets that subsequently became invisible. Results: For room A, glaucoma patients spent on average 35.0 seconds to perform the wayfinding task, whereas healthy subjects spent an average of 24.4 seconds (P = 0.001). For room B, no statistically significant difference was seen on average time to complete the task (26.2 seconds versus 23.4 seconds, respectively; P = 0.514). For room A, each 1-dB worse binocular mean sensitivity was associated with 3.4% (P = 0.001) increase in time to complete the task. Conclusions: Glaucoma patients performed significantly worse on allocentric-based wayfinding tasks conducted in a VR environment, suggesting visual field loss may affect the construction of spatial cognitive maps relevant to successful wayfinding. VR environments may represent a useful approach for assessing functional vision endpoints for clinical trials of emerging therapies in ophthalmology.

Glaucoma and Driving Risk under Simulated Fog Conditions.

PURPOSE: We evaluate driving risk under simulated fog conditions in glaucoma and healthy subjects. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 41 glaucoma patients and 25 age-matched healthy subjects who underwent driving simulation. Tests consisted of curve negotiation without and with fog preview at 30 m of distance and two controlled speeds (slow and fast). Inverse time-to-line crossing (invTLC) was used as metric to quantify risk; higher invTLC values indicating higher risk, as less time is available to avoid drifting out of the road. Piecewise regression models were used to investigate the relationship between differences in invTLC in fog and nonfog conditions and visual field loss. RESULTS: Glaucoma patients had greater increase in driving risk under fog compared to controls, as indicated by invTLC differences (0.490 ± 0.578 s-1 and 0.208 ± 0.106 s-1, respectively; P = 0.002). Mean deviation (MD) of the better eye was significantly associated with driving risk under fog, with a breakpoint of -9 dB identified by piecewise regression. For values below the breakpoint, each 1 dB lower MD of better eye was associated with 0.117 s-1 higher invTLC under fast speed (adjusted R2 = 57.9%; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Glaucoma patients have a steeper increase in driving risk under fog conditions when compared to healthy subjects, especially when the severity of visual field damage falls below -9 dB of MD in the better eye. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: By investigating the relationship between driving risk and disease severity breakpoint, this study may provide guidance to clinicians in recognizing glaucoma patients who may be unfit to drive in complex situations such as fog.