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Retinal Dystrophy with Inner Retinal Abnormalities

OMIM ID:

autosomal dominant

Retinal Dystrophy with Inner Retinal Abnormalities

Alternate Names

RDGCA

Defective Genes

ITM2B

Clinical Characteristics

Ocular Features

Otherwise healthy individuals note onset of light sensitivity between 25 and 40 years of age.  Central vision is progressively lost with average vision levels of 20/50.  In some patients vision is 20/400 but peripheral vision remains normal on visual field testing.  Small central and centrocecal scotomas can be demonstrated.  There is general hyper-reflectivity of the ganglion cell and nerve fiber layers with the latter decreased in thickness especially in the foveal area of all patients.  The optic nerve is often pale.  The ERG recordings are consistent with inner retinal dysfunction with an absent b-wave and a normal a-wave response.  Older patients have additional photopic response abnormalities and delayed implicit times.  Color vision in younger individuals was reported to be normal but older persons had mild deuteranopia.

Systemic Features

No systemic disease was noted in the single reported family.  Specifically, no dementia was present in affected individuals (vida infra).

Genetics

Inheritance

This condition has been identified in a single large 3-generation family.  A missense heterozygous mutation in the ITM2B gene (13q14.2) is responsible.  The gene product localizes to the inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers in the eye and co-localizes with the amyloid beta precursor protein of Alzheimer disease in cerebral tissue.

Pedigree

Autosomal dominant

Autosomal dominant disorders require only one mutation for the disease to be expressed.  Since an affected parent has two chromosomes, only one of which has the mutant gene, parents can expect that half (50%) of their children will receive that one and inherit the disease.  It is common for individuals that inherit the mutation, however, to not have evidence of the disease (nonpenetrance).

Image
Sample pedigree of autosomal dominant inheritance

Autosomal dominant inheritance leads to a vertical pattern of transmission

Treatment & Management

No treatment for the retinal disease is available but photosensitive individuals may benefit from tinted lenses.  Low vision aid can be useful for near vision.

Selected Resources

Web Resources

Publications

Displaying 1 - 1 of 1

The familial dementia gene revisited: a missense mutation revealed by whole-exome sequencing identifies ITM2B as a candidate gene underlying a novel autosomal dominant retinal dystrophy in a large family

PubMedID: 24026677