MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Color blindness tests

Medical Encyclopedia

Color blindness tests

Color blindness is the inability to distinguish the differences between certain colors. The most common type is red-green color blindness, where red and green are seen as the same color. Usually Isihara (pseudoisochromatic) plates are used to test color vision. They are made of dot patterns composed of primary colors. These dot patterns represent a symbol that is superimposed on a background of randomly mixed colors. The test can determine certain abnormalities in a person's color vision.

Update Date: 2/22/2007

Updated by: Manju Subramanian, MD, Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology, Vitreoretinal Disease and Surgery, Boston University Eye Associates, Boston, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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