Stroke patients with visual field defects appear to show some improvement from a novel light stimulation treatment.
Strokes can often cause a partial or complete loss of vision in one half of the visual field in each eye, causing significant mobility and reading problems.
A study led by Dr Jose Romano of the University of Florida showed that four to six weeks of vision restoration therapy (VRT) appeared to result in some improvement in over three-quarters of the sample of 161 stroke patients studied.
An improvement was defined as an increase of 5 degrees or more in the field. VRT is a method of projecting a custom-designed pattern of bright and dim light, delivered to the edges of the visual field of the affected eye.
Speaking at the recent American Stroke Association's International Conference, Dr Romano said: 'An improvement of 5 degrees can be very significant. For instance, we read with only the central 5 degrees of vision. We are very excited about our findings.'