What does campimetry mean?
Campimetry is the clinical measurement of the visual field — the entire area a person can see while looking straight ahead — performed with an instrument known as a campimeter. The technique is chiefly associated with mapping the central portion of the field, where defects such as scotomas (blind spots) may signal conditions like glaucoma, optic nerve damage, or neurological disease. In classical practice, the patient fixates on a central target while stimuli of varying size and brightness are presented across a flat tangent screen, and the examiner plots what can and cannot be seen. Though the word derives from Greek roots meaning 'curved' or 'bent' plus 'measurement', campimetry has largely been superseded by automated computerised perimetry, which covers the full visual field more efficiently. It remains a precise, technical term encountered mainly in ophthalmic journals and textbooks rather than everyday speech.
nounThe measurement of the visual field, especially the central field, by means of an instrument called a campimeter; a clinical technique used in ophthalmology to detect and map defects in a person's scope of vision.
- The clinical measurement and mapping of the visual field, particularly the central field, using a campimeter or similar device.
"The ophthalmologist ordered campimetry to chart the extent of the patient's visual field loss."
"Routine campimetry revealed a subtle scotoma in her central field of vision."
"In the era before automated perimeters, campimetry on a tangent screen was standard practice for detecting glaucomatous damage."
As a mass noun denoting a clinical technique, it usually appears unpluralised; plural forms would be rare and typically refer to instances or procedures of the test.
"Serial campimetries over several months tracked the progression of her visual field loss."
Before computers mapped your eyesight, doctors plotted your blind spots by hand on a black felt screen called a Bjerrum screen — that painstaking art is campimetry.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of campimetry
Campimetry combines the Greek 'kampe' (a bending or curve), via the combining form 'campi-', with the '-metry' suffix from Greek 'metron' (measure), denoting the science of measuring something. The term was coined in the context of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ophthalmology, when instruments such as the campimeter were developed to plot visual field defects systematically. It belongs to the large family of scientific '-metry' terms such as perimetry, geometry, and symmetry, all built on the same Greek measuring root.
Related word forms
How campimetry is actually used
A technical term confined almost entirely to ophthalmology and optometry literature; rarely encountered outside clinical contexts. Largely historical now, having been superseded by automated perimetry.
Easily confused with campimetry
Perimetry is the broader measurement of the entire visual field, while campimetry traditionally refers specifically to measuring the central visual field using a flat screen (a campimeter).