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Comparing Pupil Function with Visual Function in Patients with Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy

From the Department of Neuro-ophthalmology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom.

PURPOSE. To compare pupil function with visual function in patients with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and age-matched normal control subjects.

METHODS. Visual function was assessed by measuring the perceptual thresholds at five central locations in the visual field using automated static perimetry. Pupil function was assessed by recording the pupil responses to a standard intensity light stimulus (size equivalent to a Goldmann V target) presented at the same five locations in the visual field. The extent of the pupil afferent defect in LHON patients was quantified by establishing the relationship between stimulus intensity and the size of the pupil response in normal subjects and then interpolating the equivalent luminance deficit in LHON patients from the size of their pupil responses.

RESULTS. At all five locations tested, the pupil responses were significantly reduced in amplitude, and the perceptual thresholds were significantly raised in LHON patients compared with normal control subjects. A nonparametric analysis of perceptual and pupil responses to perithreshold stimuli showed that a stimulus that was not perceived was three times more likely to be followed by a pupil response in a LHON patient than in a normal subject (P < 0.001). A quantitative comparison showed that the visual deficits exceeded the pupil deficits by on average 7.5 dB at all tested locations.

CONCLUSIONS. Although both visual and pupil function are abnormal in LHON, there appears to be relative sparing of the pupil afferent fibers.

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