Abstract
· Background: It is difficult to detect receptor dysfunction in patients with marked bilateral visual loss but only mild morphological alterations of the fundus. · Methods: Two patients, father and son, with visual acuity loss to 20/100 were examined. Using the multifocal ERG, 61 local cone ERGs from each eye were derived from the central visual field. The dark-adapted two-color threshold perimetry using stimuli of 500 nm and 656 nm for rod and cone function was investigated along the horizontal meridian of the visual field. · Results: In the multifocal ERG of both patients a macular response was absent. From eccentricity at and anterior to 5°, good multifocal cone activity was recorded. Cone thresholds were markedly diminished in the macula. The rod thresholds were borderline in the father and normal in the son. · Conclusions: Multifocal ERG is a novel technique, very well suited to reveal the topography of cone function. Using two-color threshold perimetry affords an opportunity to differentiate between rod and cone functional defects. Both together helped to establish the diagnosis of macular cone dystrophy in the present family.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received: 5 January 1998 Revised version received: 29 July 1998 Accepted: 13 August 1999
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kretschmann, U., Stilling, R., Rüther, K. et al. Familial macular cone dystrophy: diagnostic value of multifocal ERG and two-color threshold perimetry. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 237, 429–432 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004170050255
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004170050255