Large-field S-cone flicker test.

BACKGROUND

Disturbances of blue color vision and of temporal contrast sensitivity can indicate early damage in glaucoma. For the present study a quick and easy test was devised which examines both functions at one time by testing the temporal contrast sensitivity of a blue flickering light on an intense yellow background.

METHODS

Large coextensive background and test fields (85 degrees) are used, making fixation uncritical. Detailed experiments were made in two normal subjects to derive spectral sensitivity curves from flicker-fusion frequency (FFF) versus intensity functions and to obtain complete temporal contrast-sensitivity (De Lange) curves under different levels of adaptation and test lights. After selection of appropriate luminances and one stimulation frequency from these experiments, test-retest variability was studied in four subjects in five repetitions. In addition, normal values were collected from 22 subjects.

RESULTS

Spectral sensitivities for two levels of FFF (15 Hz and 44 Hz) agree with Stiles' pi 1 at the low and with pi 4 at the high FFF. Temporal contrast-sensitivity curves show a low-frequency section with peak sensitivity at 1 Hz and a high-frequency section with a peak at around 4 Hz. From the basic experiments the following conditions for the clinical examination were selected: Background luminance 2600 cd/m2, test luminance at 451 nm 0.8 cd/m2, stimulation frequency 4 Hz. The test-retest variability showed an acceptable intraclass correlation co-efficient (0.6).

CONCLUSIONS

The present experiments carried out with a very large stimulus led to meaningful results which are in rather good agreement with results reported in the literature on small-field stimuli. The blue-on-yellow flicker test carried out under the conditions mentioned above is a quick and easy test which could be helpful in improving early glaucoma diagnosis.