OBJECTIVES To characterize and quantitate optic nerve histopathologic and morphometric differences between optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) as an early and congenital form of intrinsic axonal loss and Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) as a late and acquired form of intrinsic axonal loss. MATERIALS AND METHODS Optic nerves from 3 sources were examined: a 42-year-old healthy woman (control),...

BACKGROUND Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a cause of inherited blindness that typically presents with bilateral, painless, subacute visual failure in young adult males. Males are about four times more likely to be affected than females and 95% of LHON carriers become affected before the age of 50. Affected patients may have characteristic ocular fundal appearances and have evidence...

BACKGROUND Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a bilateral optic neuropathy of mitochondrial inheritance that produces significant painless, central vision loss and dyschromatopsia. LHON usually occurs in young males between the ages of 15 and 30 years and manifests an episode of subacute or acute vision loss in one eye, with the opposite eye becoming involved weeks to months later. A...

BACKGROUND The onset of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is relatively rare in childhood. This study describes the clinical and molecular genetic features observed in this specific LHON subgroup. METHODS Our retrospective study consisted of a UK paediatric LHON cohort of 27 patients and 69 additional cases identified from a systematic review of the literature. Patients were included i...

Individuals from 33 unrelated Australian families with optic atrophy were screened for 10 different single base alterations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) associated with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) using direct polymerase chain reaction amplification of blood spots collected on Guthrie cards. This method using blood spots allows easily accessible screening for LHON mtDNA mutations w...

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a disease that leads to blindness. Gene therapy has been investigated with some success, and could lead to important advancements in treating LHON. This was a prospective, open-label trial involving 9 LHON patients at Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China, from August 2011 to December 2015. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes of...

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and autosomal dominant optic atrophy (DOA) are the two most common inherited optic neuropathies and they result in significant visual morbidity among young adults. Both disorders are the result of mitochondrial dysfunction: LHON from primary mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations affecting the respiratory chain complexes; and the majority of DOA families ha...

The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advances in our understanding of the clinical presentation, genetics and even the pathophysiology of the hereditary optic neuropathies, specifically Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and dominant optic atrophy (DOA)1-4. We now know that most of the hereditary optic neuropathies, including LHON and DOA, have a pathophysiology reflecting a fin...

Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) appears as an enigmatic condition; affecting only certain families and often causing a severe loss of vision seemingly at random amongst family members. The first breakthrough came in 1988 with the linking of the condition to a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Now it is known that about 90% of cases are linked to 3 mutations. In this paper th...

Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) appears as an enigmatic condition; affecting only certain families and often causing a severe loss of vision seemingly at random amongst family members. The first breakthrough came in 1988 with the linking of the condition to a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Now it is known that about 90% of cases are linked to 3 mutations. In this paper th...