Physiologie, examen clinique et pathologie de la vision des couleurs

Evaluation of a New Test for the Diagnosis of Congenital Dyschromatopsia in Children: the Color Vision Evaluation Test

PURPOSE

To evaluate the validity, reproducibility, and feasibility of the "Color Vision Evaluation Test" (CVET) for the diagnosis of congenital dyschromatopsia.

DESIGN

Prospective, monocentric, sensitivity, and specificity analysis study comparing the CVET with the Farnsworth 15 Hue standard test (15 Hue STF).

METHODS

A total of 155 children from the Paediatric University Hospital of Nice were screened (both eyes) using Ishihara's pseudoisochromatic cards, which allowed dividing them into a dyschromatic group and a control group. All children underwent twice the 15 Hue STF and the CVET with at least 7 days between both series of tests.

RESULTS

Patients' mean age was 7.56 ± 3.51 years in the dyschromatic group and 8.92 ± 2.9 years in the control group. At the first evaluation, the sensitivity and specificity were 95.7% and 96.4%, respectively, for the CVET and 75% and 58.9%, respectively, for the 15 Hue STF (P < .001). The reproducibility of the CVET was 100%, whereas that of the 15 Hue STF was 88.4% (P = .01). The mean test explanation duration was 18.8 seconds for the CVET and 17.7 seconds for the 15 Hue STF (P = .3). In the dyschromatic group, the mean duration of the CVET was always significantly longer than that of the 15 Hue STF (P < .001). The children subjectively preferred to undergo the CVET rather than the 15 Hue STF in 84.6% of cases (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

The CVET is a rapid, reliable, and reproducible test for the diagnosis of congenital dyschromatopsia. It is accessible to young children.

[Hereditary color vision deficiency: Physiology, classification, diagnosis and application to aeronautics]

Hereditary color vision deficiency affects 9% of men and 0.5% of women. It is often unrecognized and diagnosed late, which can interfere with the professional careers of these patients. Most color vision deficiencies are related to X chromosome involvement and concern the red-green chromatic axis. They are secondary to dysfunction of an L or M cone (protanomaly or deuteranomaly) or to the absence of an L or M cone (protanopia or deuteranopia). Color vision deficiency screening and assessment can be done by confusion tests or equalization tests, but also by ergonomic tests, professional tests that assess the aptitude for a given profession.