Multifocal electroretinography: structural pattern analysis and early glaucoma detection

Glaucomatous optic neuropathy is probably one of the most prevalent chronic ophthalmologic diseases, affecting more than 5% of the population over 60 years of age. Early-stage glaucoma may be detected by studying local responses from many different areas of the retina, obtained by means of multifocal electroretinography (multifocal ERG), a new functional diagnostic technique. The described multifocal ERG waveform analysis, involved extracting waveform identity patterns and a neural network classifier, and allows detection of early glaucoma visual field defects.