[Leber's disease. Anatomic study of 2 cases in brothers]

Neurological disorders in members of families with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) caused by different mitochondrial mutations

Neurological abnormalities have been occasionally associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). We describe four patients with spastic dystonia from two of our 35 LHON families. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed signal alterations of globus pallidus, putamen, internal capsula, and substantia nigra. Neuropathological findings in one of the patients with dystonia are described. Each of the dystonia families carries a different mtDNA mutation; one at np 3460 and one at np 11778. Periventricular multiple sclerosis-like white matter lesions were observed in one individual from a third family with the mtDNA 3460 mutation. Neurological disorders are probably underestimated in association with LHON.

BAEP changes in Leber's hereditary optic atrophy: further confirmation of multisystem involvement

A neurophysiological study of 11 patients belonging to 5 families affected by Leber's hereditary optic atrophy is reported. Electromyography, nerve conduction velocities and somatosensory evoked potentials were normal. Visual evoked potentials were absent or delayed, desynchronized and reduced in amplitude. Brainstem auditory evoked potentials were anomalous in 64% of subjects all without hearing defects. These changes which have never before been reported, confirm multisystem involvement in this disease.

X-recessive angiopathic opticopathy

A familial optic atrophy with X-recessive heredity, distinct from Leber's optic atrophy (LOA), is described. The symptoms are: slight to moderate pallor of the papillomacular bundle at the disc possibly preceded by some hyperaemia of the disc, telangiectasia on the disc with normal retinal vessels, occurrence in the second decade of life, slow progression with often subclinical visual loss, a small relative central scotoma with an intact peripheral visual field, slight acquired tritanopia and deuteranopia, and vasomotor headaches. The disease may exhibit severe exacerbations with loss of vision to 1/60, provoked by vasoconstrictors and reacting favourably to vasodilators. This acute loss of vision is associated with ischaemia of the disc, a deep central scotoma with marked disturbance of colour vision in the form of an acquired deuteranopia, and sensoparalytic pupils. This is followed by increasing pallor of the disc, slow resolution of the central scotoma with a permanent reduction in the central light sensitivity, markedly disturbed Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP), acquired deuteranopia and normal ERG and EOG. In contrast to all hereditary opticopathies so far described, fluorescein angiography showed a disturbance of perfusion in the peripapillary choroid and the prelaminar part of the optic nerve. A similar disturbance of perfusion is described in anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (AION) and low-tension glaucoma. To these acquired, non-hereditary recessive vascular opticopathies, which usually occur late in life, will have to be added the X-recessive vascular optic atrophy which we describe here, for which we propose the name: X-recessive angiopathic opticopathy. The differential diagnosis from some other hereditary, especially X-recessive, optic atrophies is discussed.