Ocular diseases and blindness in elderly Thais.

The prevalence of ocular disease and blindness in 2,092 Thai subjects, aged 60 years and over, in 33 communities in the vicinity of Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok was studied. The subjects were examined by a team which consisted of 3-4 ophthalmologists, 6 nurses and a trainee health officer. The history, visual acuity and ocular tension were recorded. The anterior and posterior segments of the eye were assessed by using a portable slit lamp biomicroscope, and a direct and indirect ophthalmoscope. The examination revealed disease of the lens in 1656 cases (79.16%), cornea 852 cases (40.72%), lid 516 cases (24.67%), conjunctiva 462 cases (22.08%), retina 300 cases (14.34%), glaucoma 128 cases (6.12%) and of the optic nerve in 39 cases (1.86%) respectively. There were 66 cases of blindness (3.15%) and 743 cases of low vision (35.5%). The causes of blindness were cataract, glaucoma, late age-related maculopathy, optic atrophy and corneal opacity.

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) with mitochondrial ND4 gene mutation (11778) in a Thai patient.

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a maternally transmitted disease, characterized by bilateral optic atrophy predominantly in healthy young males. This disorder has shown to be associated with DNA mutation in mitochondrial genome of the patients. We report here a young man who came to the hospital with subacute visual loss in one eye, followed by the other eye within two months. His echocardiogram was normal. A G-->A base substitution at nucleotide position 11,778 which changes a conserved arginine to histidine at amino acid position 340 of ND4, a protein subunit of respiratory chain enzyme complex I in oxidative phosphorylation system, was detected in his leucocyte mitochondrial genome.