Can clinical colour vision tests be used to predict the results of the Farnsworth lantern test?
Clinicians usually do not have access to a lantern test when making an occupational assessment of the ability of a person with defective colour vision to recognise signal light colours: they must rely on the results of ordinary clinical tests. While all colour vision defectives fail the Holmes Wright Type B lantern test and most fail the Holmes Wright Type A lantern, 35% of colour vision defectives pass the Farnsworth lantern. Can clinical tests predict who will pass and fail the Farnsworth lantern? We find that a pass (less than two or more diametrical crossings) at the Farnsworth Panel D 15 Dichotomous test has a sensitivity of 0.67 and specificity of 0.94 in predicting a pass or fail at the Farnsworth lantern test: a Nagel range of > 10 has a sensitivity of 0.87 and a specificity of 0.57. We conclude that neither the D 15 nor the Nagel Anomaloscope matching range are satisfactory predictors of performance on the Farnsworth Lantern.
Cole
B L
BL
Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia. barrycole.optometry@muwayf.unimelb.edu.au
Maddocks
J D
JD
D003119:Color Perception Tests / Q000379:methods*; D003117:Color Vision Defects / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D009790:Occupations; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity