At the end of this page is a Java applet which emulates the animation feature in PROGRESSOR. Since it will take quite a long time to load, I'll preface it with a brief description of how PROGRESSOR works. If you would like to know more about the analyses incorporated in PROGRESSOR, several papers have been written about them.
PROGRESSOR analyses a series of automated visual fields by performing univariate linear regression of sensitivity upon time for each test location. The results are displayed as a cumulative graphical output in which each test location is represented by a small bar graph. Each bar in the graph represents one test. The length of the bar corresponds to the depth of defect (longer bars mean lower sensitivity) and the colour of the bar relates to the p value of the regression slope for that test according to the following legend:
Thus, a location with good sensitivity and no deterioration with time
would have short gray bars like this:
Whereas a depressed but stable location would have long gray bars:
A deteriorating location would have bars of increasing length and colour
indicating a significant negative slope:
In the following animation, which is a field series from a progressing normal-tension glaucoma patient, the cumulative graphical output is in the left pane and the right pane shows the corresponding grayscale which should be familiar to clinicians. In the grayscale display, points which satisfy the progression criteria are marked by the software with a red patch. Well, I hope that applet has loaded by now and that you think it was worth the wait! It cycles through 21 fields and shows about one field every second, although the precise timing and smoothness of the animation will depend on your machine. Hold your mouse cursor over the image for the animation to proceed: move it outside the image to pause.
If you don't see a LARGE gap between this sentence and the last one, your browser doesn't support Java.You would see the animation if you tried a recent version of Netscape Navigator.
