(Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 2000;41:1998-2005.)
© 2000
by The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.
Functional Assessment of the Regional Distribution of Disease in a Cat Model of Hereditary Retinal Degeneration
Mathias W. Seeliger1 and
Kristina Narfström2
1 From the University Eye Hospital, Department II, Tübingen, Germany; and the
2 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
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Abstract
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PURPOSE. To establish a method for the recording of multifocal
electroretinograms (MFERGs) in animals under fundus control using a
scanning-laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) and to analyze the spatial
distribution of disease in a strain of Abyssinian cats with a
recessively inherited rod-cone degeneration (ARCD).
METHODS. Four normal and 12 Abyssinian cats at four different clinical stages of
ARCD were examined with the RETIscan MFERG system using 61 hexagonal
elements within a visual field of approximately 30° radius. The
stimulus pattern was generated by the green laser beam (515 nm) of a
Heidelberg Engineering HRA SLO, whose power was reduced with a
Schott long-pass filter allowing for simultaneous infrared fundus
imaging.
RESULTS. Topographical recordings could be obtained in all animals except one in
stage 4. Amplitudes were minimal at the optic disc and had a slight
maximum at the area centralis. Implicit times had a tendency to lower
values in the central region, most pronounced in progressed stages of
ARCD. The clinical stages of ARCD correlated with a successive
generalized loss of amplitude and a rise in implicit time. Without a
decrease in retinal illuminance, topographical landmarks like the optic
disc were no longer detectable, pointing to stray light as a possible
cause.
CONCLUSIONS. It was demonstrated that topographical MFERG recordings can be
obtained in an animal model under fundus control using SLO stimulation.
The appearance of retinal landmarks was found to be dependent on
sufficient attenuation of laser power. Because the changes in ARCD are
more patchy than in human retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a generalized loss
of function was detected. However, like in RP, the central area was
found to retain a better function than the periphery, especially in
later stages of the disease. In summary, fundus controlled methods like
the one presented will greatly improve the reliability of MFERG
in future research on glaucoma, transplantation studies, and evaluation
of gene therapy.
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Introduction
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Multifocal electroretinography (MF-ERG) has been demonstrated to
be very useful in the detection of the topographical distribution of
disease in many inherited retinal degenerations.1
2
3
The
method introduced by Sutter and Tran4
is based on the
m-sequence stimulation technique and allows for the simultaneous
measurement of the ERG activity of many retinal locations.
A comparison of the components of multifocal and photopic GanzfeldERG
has shown that the waveform of the primary response (the first-order
kernel) is shaped by both the b-wave and the oscillatory
potentials.5
The stimulus, a set of several thousand subsequent
pseudo-random patterns consisting of commonly 61 or more
hexagons of either black or white color, is usually presented on a CRT
screen. Experience has shown that fixation is usually not a problem in
human clinical recordings. However, reliable positioning of the
stimulus is a problem in animal studies. Depending on the type and
depth of anesthesia, there is also a considerable degree of slow eye
movements and/or rotation of the globe that is hard to detect without
simultaneous fundus visualization.
Recently, a method was developed that uses a scanning-laser
ophthalmoscope (SLO) for a combined stimulation and imaging of the
retina.6
In many animals, the use of the green laser (515
nm) is important to obtain satisfactory results due to the lack of
long-wavelength cones.
The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of this method
to detect the retinal distribution of disease in a strain of Abyssinian
cats with a recessively inherited rod-cone degeneration
(ARCD).7
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Methods
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Animals
Four normal (ages, 1 to 6 years) and 12 Abyssinian cats at four
different clinical stages of ARCD were studied. Five cats were at stage
1 (ages, 1 to 2.5 years), 3 at stage 2 (ages, 2 to 3 years), 2 at stage
3 (ages, 2 to 3 years), and 2 at stage 4 (ages, 4 to 6 years). The cats
were anesthetized using a single intramuscular dose of medetomidine
hydrochloride (0.25 mg Domitor vet.; Orion Pharma AB, Animal
Health, Sollentina, Sweden). After 15 minutes an injection of
ketamine (15 mg Ketalar; ParkeDavis, a division of Warner Lambert
Nordic AB, Solna, Sweden) was similarly given. Ketamine was iterated
after 30 minutes of anesthesia using half the initial dose. Eyes were
dilated using tropicamide (Mydriacyl; Alcon, Alcon Nordiska AB,
Stockholm, Sweden). The research was performed in accordance with the
ARVO Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision
Research.
Methodology
Cats were kept in normal room light at least 1 hour before the
experiments. Multifocal ERG responses of the right eye of every
cat were obtained with the RETIscan system (Roland Consult, Wiesbaden,
Germany) using 61 hexagonal elements within a visual field of
approximately 30° radius. Evoked field potentials were recorded from
the cornea using JET electrodes (Roland Consult, Wiesbaden, Germany)
after dilatation of the pupil, and subsequently amplified (x250,000)
and filtered (10100 Hz). The spacing between samples was 0.98 msec.
Each data set was generated as an average of 8 subsequent runs of the
stimulation sequence. The stimulus pattern was generated by the green
laser beam (515 nm) of a HRA confocal SLO (Heidelberg Engineering,
Heidelberg, Germany) at a frame rate of 20 Hz, whereas the infrared
beam (835 nm) was used for simultaneous imaging of the stimulated area
(Fig. 1A
). A view of the stimulus in relation to the fundus is provided in
Figure 1B
. Because the trace array (i.e., the compilation of the traces
of all local responses) is provided by the software in a way that
reverses up and down, but preserves left and right, all further
ERG topographies follow that orientation. Figure 1C
is an example
of the relation between fundus position and trace array data.

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Figure 1. Multifocal ERG setup for animal studies. (A) View of the
stimulation and recording setup. At the outlet of the HRA laser beam
deflection and projection unit (left), a holder for the
long-pass filters was inserted (arrow). (B) Right
fundus of a cat (stage 1) in standard recording position during
stimulation. All filters have been removed for better visualization of
the hexagonal pattern. (C) Trace array (topographical plot
of local ERGs) as obtained from the Roland Consult system,
superimposed on a fundus picture to demonstrate the
correlation with retinal anatomy. The reduced responses at the blind
spot are clearly visible. Compared with the retinal view
(B), up and down are reversed.
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Laser power was reduced with Schott long-pass filters OG 515 and OG 530
(Schott, Mainz, Germany) of different thickness, which were added at
the aperture of the HRA (see arrow in Fig. 1A ) to obtain the desired
attenuation without reduction of the quality of the retinal image.
Figure 2A
shows the filter characteristics as supplied by the manufacturer. The
actual power output using these filters (Fig. 2B)
was determined at the
level of the cornea with a Nova laser power meter connected to a PD300
head (Ophir Optronics, Peabody, MA). In this study, a combination of an
OG 515 and OG 530 filter, both 3-mm-thick, was used. In some animals,
another recording session followed after the removal of filters.

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Figure 2. Long-pass filter characteristics. (A) Transmission data as
supplied by the filter manufacturer. The laser wavelength of the SLO is
marked by a vertical line. (B) Actual attenuation
of laser power for the filter material used in this study, measured at
the outlet after filtering (see Fig. 1A
). All data shown are averages
over a 10-second period. The nonlinearity is presumably due to
technical constraints in recording very low power values.
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For the calculation of group statistics, a part of the fundus was
chosen so that the stimulated area included important retinal landmarks
such as the optic disc, the major vessels, the area centralis, and the
visual streak. These structures were marked on the computer monitor to
ensure the same position of the stimulating pattern on the retina of
every animal. After calculation of first-order kernels, all traces were
exported and further processed on an IBM-compatible personal computer.
The group medians from each of the 61 locations were used to obtain
three-dimensional plots of the functional topography separately for
amplitude and implicit time as previously described.8
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Results
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Fundus Imaging
The HRA allowed high-contrast images of the fundus in all cats to
be obtained. The configuration and distribution of vessels (Figs. 3A
3B
3C
3D
3E)
correlated well with the clinical staging7
previous to this study. This staging is also based on color changes
during direct visualization or in standard fundus photography.
Furthermore, the SLO allowed an assessment of the nerve fiber layer,
which appeared to be well preserved even in late stages of ARCD (Fig. 3F) .

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Figure 3. Fundus changes associated with the stage of ARCD. (A through
E) Retinal images taken in standard position from
representative cats from each stage of ARCD. The most striking feature
is progressive attenuation and subsequent loss of vasculature.
(A) normal cat, (B) stage 1, (C) stage
2, (D) stage 3, and (E) stage 4. The view of
choroidal vessels in (D) is common in cats with red coat
color. (F) Different view of the same fundus as in
(E). Although the retina and the vascular system
(arrow) are heavily atrophic, the ganglion cell layer and
optic nerve fibers (arrowhead) are much better preserved.
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Local Origin of Responses
It was found that in the normal cat there was no substantial
gradient in MFERG amplitude between areas with morphologically
determined high receptor density, such as the visual streak and the
area centralis, and adjacent regions with lower cone density. Because
the blind spot is commonly used as a retinal landmark in human
recordings, the presence of low amplitudes at the position of the optic
disc was used in this study as a sign that the respective signal was
generated in the stimulated region. By the use of appropriate filters
(see below), the blind spot (i.e., a strongly reduced amplitude at the
position of the optic disc) was detected in all cats except one in
stage 4. Changes in the position of the stimulus resulted in a
corresponding change of the blind spot (Fig. 4A
), also indicating the local character of the responses.

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Figure 4. Local character of MFERG responses. (A) Trace arrays of
recordings obtained in a stage 1 cat with the blind spot in the center
of the recording area (left) and after movement to standard
position (right). The corresponding retinal images are shown
in the central column. (B) Effect of filtering on
the trace array data (shown in a stage 3 cat). Left trace
array: Normal filter setting. Right trace array: After
removal of all filters. Lower central trace array: Control
cat with normal filter setting. Removal of filters increases signal
amplitudes (here by an approximate factor of 2), but the blind spot is
no longer detectable, indicating a loss of local character. The
responses of a control cat with filters have approximately the same
amplitude as those of a stage 3 cat without filters, but implicit times
are close to the one of the stage 3 cat with filters.
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Reduction of Laser Power
The importance of a reduction in laser power became apparent when
some or all of the filters were removed. Compared with the previous
recordings, a clear response appeared in the blind spot region,
indicating a loss of the local nature of the signal (Fig. 4B)
. This
phenomenon was found in all cats, but was more pronounced in later
stages of ARCD. As the progression of the retinal degeneration causes a
successive thinning of the neuroretina, there is a change in
reflectivity of the cat tapetal fundus. The hyperreflectivity of the
fundus in cases with severe retinal atrophy may give rise to increased
effects of stray light. Best results in terms of both signaltonoise
ratio and local origin were obtained in the cats studied with 3-mm
thicknesses of both OG 515 and OG 530.
Retinal Topography in ARCD
Clear responses across the stimulated area were present in normal
cats and in affected animals up to stage 3 (Fig. 4B)
. In the most
advanced stage (stage 4), more intense stimulation (i.e., a different
filter setting) was needed to evoke substantial responses, presumably
at the cost of a higher degree of stray light. To avoid problems of
comparability induced by the use of weaker filters and the subsequent
failure to detect the blind spot, the results of stage 4 animals were
excluded from the topographical analysis (Fig. 5)
. Amplitudes and implicit times in normal and affected cats (up to
stage 2) did not show major regional differences, with the exception of
the blind spot. Amplitudes were minimal at the optic disc and in
advanced stages had a slight maximum at the area centralis (Fig. 5
,
right column). Implicit times had a tendency to lower values in the
central region, again most pronounced in advanced stages (Fig. 5
, left
column). Overall, the clinical stages of ARCD correlated with a
successive generalized loss of amplitude and a rise in implicit time.

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Figure 5. Functional topography in ARCD. Topographical plot of the medians of
amplitude (right column) and implicit time (left
column) MFERG data grouped by ARCD stage.
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Discussion
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Despite the growing number of applications in human diseases,
there are few reports on multifocal electroretinography in animal
models.9
10
11
The main problem appears to be that because
of the lack of fixation, methods to control the position of the
stimulus on the retina are needed to interpret the results. Two methods
are most commonly used in this regard. Back projection uses a bright
light that, when applied to the eye, leads to a projection of retinal
structures onto the stimulating screen. Repetitive short MFERG
recording sequences before the final measurements can also be used to
determine and adjust the position of the stimulus relative to
functional retinal landmarks like the macula (if existent in the
respective model) and the blind spot. However, both methods do not
allow for the continuous control of stimulus position during the
measurements. Depending on the type and depth of anesthesia, there is a
considerable degree of slow eye movements and/or rotation of the globe.
Because the eye often slowly returns to its starting position, these
movements are hard to detect without simultaneous fundus visualization.
Other issues are the adaptation caused by the bright light in back
projection, which further prolongs the time without fundus control due
to a mandatory recovery period before the start of recordings, and the
much smaller macular peak (compared with that in humans) even in
monkeys that is a problem for the correct positioning with the
functional method. Only a few groups have thus successfully obtained
meaningful records with these techniques.10
11
It is
common to both methods that an exactly reproducible placement of the
stimulus is not possible, which prevents an element-by-element
statistical evaluation in a larger collective of animals.
In this study, a MFERG setup that uses a SLO for a combined
stimulation and imaging of the retina was evaluated. It was
demonstrated that topographical MFERG recordings can be obtained with
such a setup in an animal model under realtime fundus control. The
use of a short-wavelength laser is in many animals the only way to
obtain satisfactory results due to the lack of long-wavelength cones.
However, a reduction of the power of the stimulating laser was found to
be necessary to preserve the local character of the responses. A direct
reduction of power output of the laser source turned out not to be as
reproducible and exact as it was felt to be needed for this study.
Neutral density filters at the level of the aperture led to good
results but did also strongly reduce the quality of fundus images. For
technical reasons, the insertion of neutral density filters just in the
path of the stimulating laser was not possible, so long-pass filters
were used to selectively reduce the stimulating laser power without
interference with the infrared beam, which gave quite good results.
Because of the sharp edge in the transmission characteristic close to
the laser wavelength (Fig. 2A)
, slight manufacturing tolerances have a
big impact on the degree of attenuation, so that each filter had to be
calibrated separately (Fig. 2B)
.
Previous full-field cone ERGs in the group of cats in this study, using
a rod-desensitizing background, have yielded ERG waveforms similar to
those obtained in the present MFERG study (K.
Narfström, unpublished observations, May 1998). However, it is
evident that these results are not directly comparable, because the
procedures and, especially, the stimulus characteristics (wavelength,
intensity) vary between the two setups. The HRA proved also to be a
very useful tool for fundus imaging in cats. Although discoloration may
not be observable so well in the gray-scale pictures, the high-contrast
images clearly showed the changes to retinal structures like the loss
of small and the thinning of main vessels with increasing stage (Figs. 3A
3B
3C
3D
3E)
. The confocal laser allows also to focus on the nerve
fiber layer, which appeared relatively intact even in late stages of
ARCD (Fig. 3F)
. This finding is important for therapeutical approaches
like the transplantation of pigment epithelial tissue because it
suggests that it may be possible to evoke central responses after
successful therapy.
The reason for the increased response at the position of the optic disc
in the case of higher laser power (Fig. 4B)
is very probably stray
light. The exact mechanism is not known yet, but it is believed that
aberrant light from the stimulated region reaches photoreceptors in
other parts of the retina, thereby causing a contribution to the sum
response. Because the method cannot determine where a signal originates
from, the evoked response is attributed to the stimulated
area.8
Further work is needed to determine whether this
phenomenon is restricted to the optic disc, and whether the effect is
more of a general, a widespread, or a local, restricted character
(i.e., an increased spot size).
A major advantage of the exact alignment of the stimulated area with
retinal structures in each animal is the possibility to obtain group
statistics. For each stage of ARCD and the control group, medians of
amplitude and implicit time were calculated for each single element of
the multifocal stimulus as described previously in
humans.9
An evaluation of these stage group medians
revealed that the topography of normal and diseased cats is relatively
"flat" in comparison to human (i.e., the regions of histologically
determined higher cone density like the visual streak and the area
centralis were not functionally discernible except for the later stages
of the disease; Fig. 5
). It appears that the differences between these
and the adjacent regions, in contrast to the changes induced by ARCD,
are not big enough to be clearly detectable with the current setup.
This is supported by the fact that even in the monkey the differences
in MFERG amplitude between the macula and the surrounding retina are
less distinct compared with those in humans (data not shown), which is
a problem for the correct positioning of the stimulus with the
functional method as described above. There is work in progress that
aims at an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio with different
modes of stimulation, which may eventually lead to a better detection
of the central structures in normals and early stages of ARCD.
The photopic conditions guaranteed by the ambient light previous
to and during recording, and the relatively fast stimulus sequence,
assured that the obtained responses were cone-driven. We have confirmed
that assumption by recording MFERGs with the same setup from young
Rho-/- (which lack any rod function due to the
absence of rhodopsin)12
and CNG3-/-
(a model for achromatopsia that lacks cone function)13
mice. The latter do have a normal rod Ganzfeld ERG but no MF response,
whereas the first have no rod ERG but almost a full MF
response.14
In human retinitis pigmentosa (RP), the central area is usually
damaged relatively little, whereas the peripheral regions are strongly
abnormal.1
In contrast, feline ARCD is morphologically
evenly distributed during early stages, so that normal-looking and
diseased photoreceptors are often found side-by-side.7
However, like in RP, the central region is histologically relatively
better preserved in late stages. In accordance with these facts, a
clear generalized loss of function was detected in the early stages of
the disease (Fig. 5)
, whereas in later stages the central area was
found to retain a better function than the periphery.
In summary, it was demonstrated that topographical MFERG recordings
can be obtained in an animal model under fundus control using SLO
stimulation. The appearance of retinal landmarks was found to be
dependent on sufficient attenuation of laser power. Because the changes
in early ARCD are more evenly distributed than in human RP, a
generalized loss of function was detected. However, as in RP, the
central area was found to retain a better function than the periphery,
especially in later stages of the disease. Fundus-controlled methods
like the one presented will greatly improve the reliability of MFERG
in future research on glaucoma, transplantation studies, and evaluation
of gene therapy.
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Footnotes
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Supported by DFG Grants SFB 430 C2 and Zr 1/10-1; Fortuene Grant 517; Swedish Medical Research Council Grant 19X-09938; and Foundation Fighting Blindness.
Submitted for publication September 15, 1999; revised January 11, 2000; accepted January 26, 2000.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
Corresponding author: Mathias W. Seeliger, Retinal Electrodiagnostics Research Group, University Eye Hospital, Department II, Schleichstr. 12-16, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany. see{at}ieee.org
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References
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