Opthalmology

E-mail: bradley.katz@hsc.utah.edu
Address: John A. Moran Eye Center
Phone: 585-6653

Light sensitivity is a common symptom in people with migraine and benign essential blepharospasm (BEB)

Light sensitivity is a common symptom in people with migraine and benign essential blepharospasm (BEB).  In a series of previous, original research projects by UU Summer Medical Students, we have demonstrated that patients with BEB are as light sensitive as migraine patients, that they have significant impairments in their activities of daily living, that they have elevated levels of macular carotenoids, and that their light sensitivity can be improved by wearing FL-41 tinted spectacles. The purpose of this investigation will be to determine how light sensitivity is encoded by the retina by evaluating subjects with blindness and light sensitivity.

Although on the surface it seems impossible that patients with severe visual impairments would be light sensitive. In fact, certain classes of blind patients can have profound light sensitivity. Light sensitivity appears to be more common in patients with retinal degenerations that involve photoreceptors, such as retinitis pigmentosa. Our hypothesis is that the mechanism of light sensitivity in these patients is the same as the mechanism in patients with migraine and BEB. Specifically, we hypothesize that light sensitivity in these and other patients is not encoded by the photoreceptors, but instead by a specific, newly discovered class of retinal ganglion cells, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, or IPRGCs.

1/2008