Oguchi disease

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Oguchi disease
Other namesCongenital stationary night blindness, Oguchi type 1 or Oguchi disease 1 [1]
Autosomal recessive - en.svg
Oguchi disease has an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance.
Specialty Neurology   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Oguchi disease is an autosomal recessive [2] form of congenital stationary night blindness associated with fundus discoloration and abnormally slow dark adaptation.

Contents

Genetics

Several mutations have been implicated as a cause of Oguchi disease. These include mutations in the arrestin gene or the rhodopsin kinase gene. [1]

Type OMIM Gene
Type 1 258100 SAG
Type 2 613411 GRK1

The condition is more frequent in individuals of Japanese ethnicity. [3]

Diagnosis

Oguchi disease present with nonprogressive night blindness since young childhood or birth with normal day vision, but they frequently claim improvement of light sensitivities when they remain for some time in a darkened environment.[ citation needed ]

On examination patients have normal visual fields but the fundi have a diffuse or patchy, silver-gray or golden-yellow metallic sheen and the retinal vessels stand out in relief against the background.[ citation needed ]

A prolonged dark adaptation of three hours or more, leads to disappearance of this unusual discoloration and the appearance of a normal reddish appearance. This is known as the Mizuo-Nakamura phenomena and is thought to be caused by the overstimulation of rod cells. [4]

Differential diagnosis

Other conditions with similar appearing fundi include[ citation needed ]

These conditions do not show the Mizuo-Nakamura phenomenon.

Electroretinographic studies

Oguchi's disease is unique in its electroretinographic responses in the light- and dark-adapted conditions. The A- and b-waves on single flash electroretinograms (ERG) are decreased or absent under lighted conditions but increase after prolonged dark adaptation. There are nearly undetectable rod b waves in the scotopic 0.01 ERG and nearly negative scotopic 3.0 ERGs.[ citation needed ]

Dark-adaptation studies have shown that highly elevated rod thresholds decrease several hours later and eventually result in a recovery to the normal or nearly normal level.

The S, M and L cone systems are normal.

Management

History

It was described by Chuta Oguchi (1875–1945), a Japanese ophthalmologist, in 1907. The characteristic fundal appearances were described by Mizuo in 1913.Treatment of the disease is limited. In the People's Republic of China, high doses of Vitamin K and zinc are infused but thus treatment has been declared as quackery in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and by the Timor Leste Academy of Ophthalmology. In the U.S., afflicted persons have taken high doses of zinc (240 mg every two hours).

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In visual physiology, adaptation is the ability of the retina of the eye to adjust to various levels of light. Natural night vision, or scotopic vision, is the ability to see under low-light conditions. In humans, rod cells are exclusively responsible for night vision as cone cells are only able to function at higher illumination levels. Night vision is of lower quality than day vision because it is limited in resolution and colors cannot be discerned; only shades of gray are seen. In order for humans to transition from day to night vision they must undergo a dark adaptation period of up to two hours in which each eye adjusts from a high to a low luminescence "setting", increasing sensitivity hugely, by many orders of magnitude. This adaptation period is different between rod and cone cells and results from the regeneration of photopigments to increase retinal sensitivity. Light adaptation, in contrast, works very quickly, within seconds.

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Electroretinography

Electroretinography measures the electrical responses of various cell types in the retina, including the photoreceptors, inner retinal cells, and the ganglion cells. Electrodes are placed on the surface of the cornea or on the skin beneath the eye to measure retinal responses. Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) responses are measured with an EOG test with skin-contact electrodes placed near the canthi. During a recording, the patient's eyes are exposed to standardized stimuli and the resulting signal is displayed showing the time course of the signal's amplitude (voltage). Signals are very small, and typically are measured in microvolts or nanovolts. The ERG is composed of electrical potentials contributed by different cell types within the retina, and the stimulus conditions can elicit stronger response from certain components.

Purkinje effect Tendency for sight to shift toward blue colors at low light levels

The Purkinje effect is the tendency for the peak luminance sensitivity of the eye to shift toward the blue end of the color spectrum at low illumination levels as part of dark adaptation. In consequence, reds will appear darker relative to other colors as light levels decrease. The effect is named after the Czech anatomist Jan Evangelista Purkyně. While the effect is often described from the perspective of the human eye, it is well established in a number of animals under the same name to describe the general shifting of spectral sensitivity due to pooling of rod and cone output signals as a part of dark/light adaptation.

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Congenital stationary night blindness Medical condition

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Rhodopsin kinase is a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase involved in phototransduction. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction:

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 6 Mammalian protein found in Homo sapiens

Glutamate receptor, metabotropic 6, also known as GRM6 or mGluR6, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the GRM6 gene.

SAG (gene)

S-arrestin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SAG gene.

Foundation Fighting Blindness

The mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is to fund research that will lead to the prevention, treatment and cures for the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, Stargardt disease and related conditions. These diseases, which affect more than 10 million Americans and millions more throughout the world, often lead to severe vision loss or complete blindness.

The Mizuo–Nakamura Phenomenon is a phenomenon observed in Oguchi's disease. It was named after Gentaro Mizuo (1876–1913) and Bunpei Nakamura (1886–1969), Japanese ophthalmologists.

Occult macular dystrophy (OMD) is a rare inherited degradation of the retina, characterized by progressive loss of function in the most sensitive part of the central retina (macula), the location of the highest concentration of light-sensitive cells (photoreceptors) but presenting no visible abnormality. "Occult" refers to the degradation in the fundus being difficult to discern. The disorder is called "dystrophy" instead of "degradation" to distinguish its genetic origin from other causes, such as age. OMD was first reported by Y. Miyake et al. in 1989.

References

  1. 1 2 Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM): 258100
  2. Maw, M. A.; John, S.; Jablonka, S.; Müller, B.; Kumaramanickavel, G.; Oehlmann, R.; Denton, M. J.; Gal, A. (May 1995). "Oguchi disease: suggestion of linkage to markers on chromosome 2q". Journal of Medical Genetics. 32 (5): 396–398. doi:10.1136/jmg.32.5.396. PMC   1050438 . PMID   7616550.
  3. "Oguchi Disease". Foundation Fighting Blindness. Archived from the original on 2007-04-06. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
  4. Hartnett, Mary Elizabeth; Antonio Capone; Michael Trese (2004). Pediatric Retina: Medical and Surgical Approaches Guide to Rare Disorders. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN   978-0-7817-4782-0.