Electroretinogram of Graves' Disease with Compressive Optic Neuropathy

1. Gaku Ito¹
2. Kenichi Kohzaki²
3. Takuya Yamada¹
4. Ai Kozaki¹
5. Toshu Inoue¹
6. Yoichi Inoue¹

¹Olympia Eye Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
²Jikei University School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo, Japan

Purpose: To evaluate the function of retinal ganglion cells in Graves' disease with compressive optic neuropathy.

Methods: Eight patients (5 males and 3 females) with Graves' disease with compressive optic neuropathy were treated with steroid therapy in Olympia Eye Hospital. The average age of patients was 62.8 years old. All patients had photopic electroretinogram recorded pre and post steroid therapy. Photopic a-wave, b-wave and photopic negative response (PhNR) features were analyzed.

Results: The a-wave amplitude was 47.2 ± 1.8 μV pre-treatment and 42.8 ± 3.4 μV post. There was no significant difference compared with post treatment. The a-wave implicit time was also not different (16.1 ± 0.1, 16.5 ± 0.1 ms, respectively). B-wave amplitude was significantly (P < 0.05) decreased post-treatment (125.6 ± 10.2 μV) compared with pre-treatment (143.8 ± 6.0 μV). B-wave implicit time was also significantly longer at post-treatment (33.3 ± 0.4 ms) compared with pre (32.4 ± 0.3 ms) but no significant. PhNR amplitude was decreased post-treatment (37.9 ± 3.6 μV) compared with pre-treatment (39.3 ± 4.0 μV), but its implicit time was not changed (pre; 45.1 ± 0.6, post; 44.6 ± 2.2 ms, respectively).

Conclusions: The data showed that retinal ganglion cell function in Graves' disease with compressive optic neuropathy was not affected pre and post steroid therapy. However the ON-bipolar cell function was decreased after steroid therapy.