The flight of colours test. Its value as an indicator of dysfunction of the visual pathways.

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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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)97-102
Number of pages6
JournalClinical and experimental neurology
Volume25
Publication statusPublished or Issued - 1988
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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