Photoscreening comparison
Reviewed by Fiona Rowe

The A09/S09 photoscreener contains a fixation target of flashing lights (as for the S04) plus a smiley face which is new. Concerns were raised that the smiley face may stimulate less accommodation than the S04 attention lights and therefore potentially underestimate hypermetropia. The authors sought to determine if the referral pattern of the A09 was consistent with that of the S04 using the same pre-programmed referral criteria. One hundred and thirteen children aged less than one year up to 11 years (average five years) were examined. No significant difference was found in the pass / refer pattern of results. Correlation was 0.8345. There was no significant difference for sensitivity, specificity, false positive or false negative rate between the two devices. They conclude the S04 and A09/S09 are validated and useful tools for visual screening programmes.

A comparison of the Plusoptix S04 and A09 photoscreeners.
Singman E, Matta N, Tian J, et al.
STRABISMUS
2013;21:85-7.