Visual Disability in IRD Is Common & Begins Early

Patients with inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) experience significant visual disability, according to findings published in Ophthalmology Science. João Melo Beirão, MD, PhD, and colleagues assessed 253 patients aged 3-80 from 214 families (mean age, 39.8±20.0) to examine visual impairment among patients with inherited retinal diseases (IRDs). The mean number of categories per patient that added to the degree of visual disability was 1.8±0.9. Low vision and visual field changes were the most common double combinations of categories (18.2%); This combination plus the loss of bi-foveolar fixation was the most common triple combination (8.3%). Overall, more than two-thirds of patients had visual disabilities that warranted medical disability benefits. While most patients (72.3%) with IRDs were younger than 20, there were no correlations between visual disability coefficients and age, “meaning that when these diseases begin early, the disability is already high,” Dr. Melo Beirão and colleagues wrote.