Visual field results - many "relative scotoma", what does it mean?

[hei213]

I got a visual field test (up to 80 degrees), it went fine, but I got some relative scotomas in the visual field. What does that mean? I googled it of course but didn't really understand the definition.
By the way, I was very sleepy (and somewhat sickly) when doing the test, I sometimes struggled to keep my eyes open for that long time. Could it affect the test?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Yes if you were sleep, or tired or distracted you may have a large number of "fixation losses" and 'false positives' and false negatives. You would need to discuss with the eye doctor that ordered the test.

[hei213]

Thank you for the answer once again. I did report this to them and they took a look at my retina/macula via an OCT and that tool where they light into my eyes (of course all dilated), nothing to find.
While that's by no means relevant, I looked up some online visual field tests (also made by doctors) after some sleep and I got proper results even while still somewhat dilated on the hardest "difficulty" (lowest contrast).

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Then it would seem the VF is nothing to worry about

[hei213]

Thanks for the help. Sorry for the late reply, but one more thing - the tests were to rule out retinitis pigmentosa (which they did, luckily), so I had an ERG as well, which was completely normal. Do patients with abnormal visual field have normal ERG, or are these completely unrelated?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

They test different parts of the visual system.  ERG test is more specific where VF tests entire visual system including brain.

[hei213]

So I imagine the errors due to patient's fault are more prone to pop up in VF. Knowing that RP starts on peripheral vision, I gazed forward but recklessly paid attention to the outer edges (where I got all correct) and didn't even mind my center of vision. Mix it up with fatigue, illness and being scared s***less of what will the results be, the mistakes were bound to happen :(

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

It is a stressful test and some people cannot do it due to 'fixation losses"   RP begins with changes in the retina not the VF where defects follow.