Dvorine color perception testing charts (Volume 1)

Historical Significance: Israel Dvorine (1900-1989) was an American optometrist who practised in the Baltimore area in Maryland for 40 years. He never finished high school and worked first in an optical laboratory before completing his OD at Pennsylvania College of Optometry in the 1920s. He was named Optometrist of the Year by the AOA in 1983. He is perhaps best remembered as the designer of this Dvorine pseudoisochromatic plate test for colour blindness. He also wrote several books: Theory and practice of analytical refraction and orthoptics (1948 Cat No 181) and Theory and practice of analytical refraction and orthoptics (1939 Cat No 556). The colour perception test and its rationale are described in a paper by Dvorine (A new diagnostic method of testing and training color perception. Amer J Optom Arch Amer Acad Optom 1944; 21: 225-235.). The test is in two volumes. Vol 1 is for testing colour perception and Vol 2 for training to improve it. The first paper describes the test but there is no account of the principles on which it is constructed. The author does not allude to what was then the new knowledge of colour confusion lines nor show any familiarity with the then well established von Kries nomenclature for classification of the colour vision deficiencies into dichromasy and anomalous trichromasy and their subdivision into protan, deutan and tritan. There is no validation data in the first paper. The second paper describes the results of providing colour perception training for 20 people who failed the screening colour vision tests and were provided with an average of 8.15 hours of training. The Ishihara test and the AOC pseudoisochromatic plate test were used as well as the Dvorine test and the Holmgren Wool test. 69% of patients showed improvement in colour naming and on the pseudoisochromatic plate tests.