Colour vision deficiencies in Alzheimer's disease.
OBJECTIVE
visual disorders are among the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. It is, however, still controversial as to whether Alzheimer's disease impairs colour vision. In this study, colour vision of Alzheimer's disease patients was tested using the Ishihara test and the PV-16 choice test. The latter test, primarily designed for children, was chosen in order to avoid problems due to cognitive decline.


METHODS
26 patients with mild to severe Alzheimer's disease (M:F=5:21; mean age: 80+/-9 years, range: 53-95 years) and 25 controls (M:F=5:20; mean age 80+/-10 years, range: 56-100 years) were rated after undergoing complete neuro-ophthalmologic examination.


RESULTS
the Alzheimer's disease patients made significantly more unspecific errors in the Ishihara test (P=0.02) and in the PV-16 choice test (P=0.0008) than the controls. No relation between test performance and severity of Alzheimer's disease was found.


CONCLUSIONS
Alzheimer's disease patients have an unspecific colour vision deficiency independent of the severity of the disease.
Pache
Mona
M
University Eye Clinic, Mittlere Strasse 91, CH-4012 Basel, Switzerland.
Smeets
Claudia H W
CH
Gasio
Paola Fontana
PF
Savaskan
Egemen
E
Flammer
Josef
J
Wirz-Justice
Anna
A
Kaiser
Hedwig J
HJ
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003119:Color Perception Tests; D003117:Color Vision Defects / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged