title: The flight of colours test. Its value as an indicator of dysfunction of the visual pathways.
abstract: The flight of colours (FOC) test was compared with visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in 135 patients in a 2 year prospective study, to determine whether the FOC test is a sensitive and reliable alternative. We obtained an 80% overall agreement between the tests, confirming the levels of agreement reported by Rolak (87%) and Swart and Millac (92%). Abnormal VEPs, however, were more closely associated with cases of clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS) while abnormal FOCs were more frequent in cases of non-demyelinating disease and cases without clinically evident optic nerve or other ocular disorder. We cannot explain this result by any demonstrated superiority of the FOC test over VEPs in non-demyelinating visual disturbances, whether clinically evident or not. Thus the study does not confirm the earlier expectation that the FOC test would be a reliable alternative to the study of VEPs in the differential diagnosis of MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, SA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hamilton-Bruce
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Black
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003119:Color Perception Tests; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology