The flight-of-colors test in multiple sclerosis.

Abstract

To the Editor. —I was interested in the recent article by Rolak,1confirming the effectiveness of the flight-of-colors test as a bedside test, in supporting the diagnosis of suspected multiple sclerosis (MS).2The major problem with this simple and useful test, in my opinion, is the high possible variability in the choice of criteria for abnormality. In particular, it may be difficult to quantify the number of color changes. We have also administered this test to 40 patients with clinically definite MS,3aged 16 to 54 years (duration of disease, two to 22 years), and to 40 controls of the same age and educational group.4The methods and criteria used were those of Feldman et al.5With this test we tried to quantify the following: (1) the number of fundamental color changes: yellow, blue, green, violet, red, orange, brown, and gray; the shades reported by