Retinal degeneration without pigment alterations in progressive external ophthalmoplegia

Atheromatosis of the Scalp: A Novel Feature of Chronic Progressive External Ophthalmoplegia Plus Due to a Single Mitochondrial DNA Deletion

Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) manifests phenotypically as ptosis with ophthalmoplegia or CPEO-plus, with the affection of muscles or organs other than the extra-ocular eye muscles. Herein, a case of CPEO-plus caused by a single mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletion is represented, along with several previously unreported phenotypic features. The patient is a 76-year-old Caucasian female who had experienced slowly progressive bilateral ptosis since the age of 15, followed by gradual ophthalmoparesis without double vision. Since the age of 56, she had developed mild quadriparesis, depression, easy fatigability, hypersomnia, a facial tic, optic atrophy, cataract, glaucoma, hepatomegaly, hepatic steatosis, cholecystolithiasis, diverticulosis, hyperhidrosis, mild hyper-creatine-kinase-emia, hyperlipidemia, and hyperuricemia. Moreover, she had faced previously unreported manifestations of mitochondrial disorders, psoriasis, and multiple scalp atheromas. The phenotype and a single 5kb mtDNA deletion were employed to diagnose CPEO-plus. This case demonstrates that the phenotypic spectrum of CPEO-plus is broader than expected, that psoriasis and scalp atheromas are unique features of a mitochondrial disorder, and that CPEO progresses to CPEO-plus during the years.

Pigment changes of the retina in chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO)

A study was made of the retinal functions in 4 patients with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia, general myopathy, EEG anomalies and pigment changes of the fundus oculi (ophthalmoplegia-plus). Three of them exhibited typical, granular pigmentations in a linear or reticular arrangement at the periphery. All four showed slight to moderate pigment epithelial defects in the maculae, mostly only discernible with fluorescence angiography. In all 4 cases, a slight decrease of the visual acuity, a mildly abnormal ERG, mild concentric restriction of the field of vision and, in two cases, an abnormal dark-adaptation curve led to the conclusion of a mild diffuse, widely disseminated receptor affection of the retina (both rods and cones). The EOG appeared normal in 3, and at the lower limit of normal in 1 case. On the basis of a detailed study of the literature we can conclude that the retinal lesions in chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia may vary from benign pigmentations without functional impairment to genuine 'retinitis pigmentosa' with all gradations of rod-cone or cone-rod dystrophy. Emphasis is laid on the possibility of a correlation between the mitochondrial abnormalities encountered in ocular myopathy and ophthalmoplegia-plus on the one hand, and the retinal abnormalities on the other, with special reference to a possible disorder of the utilization of pyruvate in the citric-acid cycle and a loose coupling of the oxidative phosphorylation.

Visual dysfunction in patients with mitochondrial myopathies. I. Electrophysiologic impairments

Seventeen patients with biopsy-confirmed mitochondrial progressive external ophthalmoplegia underwent electroretinography and visual evoked potential testing to checkerboard-reversal stimuli to investigate subclinical visual dysfunction. Seven patients (41%) had impaired Snellen visual acuity that was never less than 0.6. Thirteen patients (76%) showed electroretinographic and/or visual evoked potential alterations, whereas six (35%) showed impairment on both tests. Two patients showed delayed VEP P100 latency without fundus, electroretinographic or visual acuity anomalies. Visual dysfunctions were not related to age at onset and course of the disease.

ERG and VECP in chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO)

Eleven patients suffering from chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) were investigated by means of electroretinograms (ERG) and visually evoked cortical potentials (VECP) to flash and checkerboard-reversal stimuli. One patient exhibited a Kearns syndrome, in two patients fundoscopy revealed pigmentary retinopathy, and the other eight patients had normal fundi. In the three patients with pigmentary retinopathy the ERGs were slightly disturbed or normal, the P100-latencies in the VECPs being normal. Three out of eight patients without pigmentary changes had reduced ERGs indicating unsuspected retinopathy. This nonpigmentary retinopathy was only detected by means of ERG and may be the electrophysiological correlate of a reduced visual acuity. One patient had a considerably prolonged P100-latency in the pattern-reversal VECP of one eye, which may indicate lesions of the visual pathway along with CPEO.

Dominant optic atrophy, deafness, ptosis, ophthalmoplegia, dystaxia, and myopathy. A new syndrome

Twenty-three members of a 96-member family exhibited an autosomal dominant disorder which has not previously been described. This disorder involves progressive optic atrophy, abnormal electroretinography without retinal pigment changes, and progressive sensorineural hearing loss usually evident in the first or second decade of life. In midlife, ptosis, ophthalmoplegia, dystaxia, and a nonspecific myopathy occur.