EYE EXAMS, STROKE AND TUMORS

Many times we often get questions like "How did you detect I had a tumour in my brain?" or "Why have you rushed me to Emerg for an MRI or CT scan, to rule out an impending stroke?". "How can an Eye Exam detect a Stroke or tumour in the Brain?"

One of the screening tests done during an examination by your Optometrist is the CONFRONTATION VISUAL FIELD TEST.

Your Optometrist would compare their peripheral visual field with yours. This simple act can detect missing fields that could be as a result of conditions associated with blind spots in your field of view.

Diseases of the retina, optic neuropathy, brain tumours and stroke could cause visual field defects.

During Confrontation visual field testing, Your Optometrist would ask you to focus on their open eye while you state how many fingers you can see.You do this without staring at the fingers shown.

If an eye disease is suspected, you would be asked to do a more sensitive test called an Automated Visual field test.

For this procedure, You are to stay fixated at a light source and indicate when you see random flickering lights without neccessarily staring at them.

If you do not see the light in certain parts of your field of view, you may have a blind spot indicating visual loss from either glaucoma, retinal disease, Stroke or a Tumour.

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Eye Exams can save your live.