A new colour vision test for clinical use

Several tests are available for assessing colour vision but they can be expensive, complicated or too time consuming to perform. We have produced a new plate test based on pseudoisochromatic principles. The test, using an error score, examines both the red-green and blue-yellow axes, with four levels of difficulty for each axis. Results from a pilot study show that error scores from congenital red-green blind subjects are significantly higher than those of age-matched controls (p < 0.01) only when using the red-green plates and not the blue-yellow plates. In optic neuritis patients, error scores using both the red-green and blue-yellow plates were significantly higher than those of controls throughout the 6 month follow-up. The test, including scoring, takes 6 minutes to complete. These preliminary results suggest that the new test is effective for screening congenital red-green blindness and monitoring colour vision defects in acquired diseases such as optic neuritis.