Velhagen Pfügertrident pseudoisochromatic plates in screening congenital red-green vision defects.

Red-green colour vision defects were screened in a group of 425 trade school students using Velhagen Pflügertrident pseudoisochromatic plates. Thereafter, the students were examined with the Nagel anomaloscope. Of the 425 students, 31 (7.3%) were found to be colour defectives. Deuteranomalous defects were found in 4.9% of cases; deuteranopic defects, in 0.2%; and protanomalous defects, in 2.1%. There were no protanopic students in the study group. The Velhagen plates found 19 of the 31 defectives (sensitivity, 61.3%); none of the students with normal colour vision were suspected of being colour defectives (specificity, 100%). The sensitivity of the Velhagen plates is not as high as that of other pseudoisochromatic tests. However, the Velhagen Pflügertrident test is easy to use when screening of pre-school-aged children is needed.