THE FLASHLIGHT TEST AND VAN HERICKS TEST ARE POOR PREDICTORS FOR OCCLUDABLE ANGLES

Objective: To determine the reliability and validity of the flashlight test and van Herick's test in detecting occludable anterior chamber a ngles. Methods: The flashlight test, van Herick's test and gonioscopy were performed independently by two observers on 96 consecutive new pa tients in our outpatient clinic. Interobserver agreement was determine d using the weighted Kappa statistic. Using the glaucoma specialist's assessment of occludability of the angle (assessed by gonioscopy) as a gold standard, the sensitivities and specificities of the two tests w ere calculated. Results: All three tests showed good agreement (Kappa more than 0.75). The sensitivity and specificity of the flashlight tes t were 45.5% and 82.7% respectively. For the van Herick's test they we re 61.9% and 89.3%. Conclusion: The flashlight test and van Herick's t est are of limited use as screening tests for occludable angles.