Retinitis Pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa is one of several eye conditions that appears to benefit from nutritional substances. In a study published Monday, researchers found that people with the condition experienced a slowing of the disease process if they took vitamin A supplements and ate a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids. Retinitis pigmentosa causes night blindness by adolescence and eventually tunnel vision and total blindness by about age 60. Vitamin A has been a standard therapy for the condition since 1993 when studies showed it slowed disease progression.

Robert Greenberg got tired of hearing from senior engineers that it wasn't possible to build his product idea: a bionic eye that gives sight to the blind. "A lot of the folks straight out of school didn't know any better, so I hired them instead," quipped Greenberg, chief executive of Second Sight Medical Products Inc., a Sylmar biotech company. "They didn't know how hard it was going to be, that it was impossible. And so they tried. " Greenberg can laugh now that he once thought developing the device would take a year and $1 million.

Robert Greenberg got tired of hearing from senior engineers that it wasn't possible to build his product idea: a bionic eye that gives sight to the blind. "A lot of the folks straight out of school didn't know any better, so I hired them instead," quipped Greenberg, chief executive of Second Sight Medical Products Inc., a Sylmar biotech company. "They didn't know how hard it was going to be, that it was impossible. And so they tried. " Greenberg can laugh now that he once thought developing the device would take a year and $1 million.

The FDA on Thursday approved a bionic eye that improves vision for patients blinded by a rare eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa. The Argus II system , a video camera and transmitter mounted on eyeglasses, translates light and movement into electrical signals, which are sent directly to an array of electrodes implanted into a patient's retina. Clinical trials have demonstrated that for patients whose retinal cells have been ravaged by the genetic condition, the visual prosthetic device helps restore the ability to perform many daily activities.

A small preliminary study has found that valproic acid--a drug already used to treat epileptic seizures, migraines and bipolar disorder--may halt or even reverse the loss of vision produced by retinitis pigmentosa, researchers said Thursday. A team from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worchester is now organizing a clinical trial to confirm its observations. Retinitis pigmentosa, commonly known as RP, is a group of eye diseases marked by degeneration of the retina, the part of the eye that captures images, leading to loss of peripheral vision and night vision.

Researchers have identified what they think is the last piece of the genetic puzzle of a major form of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disorder that has produced blindness in about 100,000 Americans and 1.5 million people worldwide. The discovery should make possible prenatal screening for the disorders in families with "autosomal dominant" RP, which accounts for about 43% of all cases of the disorder, said geneticist Jeanette S.

When Todd Cantrell was 12 years old, his desperate attempt to save his sight made national headlines when he bucked the Cold War and American medical opinion by traveling to Moscow for experimental treatment. "I could see very little," Cantrell says now, 11 years later. "I couldn't even go outside when it was cloudy." Today, Cantrell is a 23-year-old man living with his parents on the edge of the north Georgia mountains.

For the past nine years, Mary Casper, Orange County director of Retinitis Pigmentosa International, has kept the organization's office fires burning in her Fullerton home. On Friday night the organization celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Princess Alicante Hotel in Garden Grove. Featured on the $100-per-plate agenda was a "roast" of Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda.

UCLA researchers believe they have isolated the gene that causes loss of vision in a strain of mice, a defect that serves as a model for retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease that has produced blindness in about 100,000 Americans and 1.5 million people worldwide. Retinitis pigmentosa, commonly known as RP, is thought to be caused by a number of different genes.

Researchers from Texas and Ireland said Monday that they have identified the location of the gene that causes one major form of retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that has produced blindness in nearly 100,000 Americans and 1.5 million people worldwide. The discovery of a genetic marker for the disorder, commonly called RP, on Chromosome 3 makes possible prenatal screening for the disorder in some families. It also brings researchers close to isolating the gene.

Retinitis pigmentosa is one of several eye conditions that appears to benefit from nutritional substances. In a study published Monday, researchers found that people with the condition experienced a slowing of the disease process if they took vitamin A supplements and ate a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids. Retinitis pigmentosa causes night blindness by adolescence and eventually tunnel vision and total blindness by about age 60. Vitamin A has been a standard therapy for the condition since 1993 when studies showed it slowed disease progression.

Bill Fulton — urban planner, urbane public speaker and mayor of Ventura — was starting to stumble. In dim meeting rooms, he had trouble reading. At the civic events he attended almost nightly, he left some people puzzled — even angered — when they extended their hands and he failed to grasp them. "I can't always see it when someone wants to shake hands with me," he said. "When you're a politician, that's not good. " Fulton, a member of Ventura's City Council since 2003, will step down from office Monday and leave town next spring, largely as an adjustment to an eye disease that is slowly robbing him of his sight.

A small preliminary study has found that valproic acid--a drug already used to treat epileptic seizures, migraines and bipolar disorder--may halt or even reverse the loss of vision produced by retinitis pigmentosa, researchers said Thursday. A team from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worchester is now organizing a clinical trial to confirm its observations. Retinitis pigmentosa, commonly known as RP, is a group of eye diseases marked by degeneration of the retina, the part of the eye that captures images, leading to loss of peripheral vision and night vision.

Pennsylvania researchers using gene therapy have made significant improvements in vision in 12 patients with a rare inherited visual defect, a finding that suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. The team last year reported success with three adult patients, an achievement that was hailed as a major accomplishment for gene therapy. They have now treated an additional nine patients, including five children, and find that the best results are achieved in the youngest patients, whose defective retinal cells have not had time to die off. The youngest patient, 9-year-old Corey Haas, was considered legally blind before the treatment began.

"Revelation" is the title of a new play by Christina Kokubo. And when it opens next month in Los Angeles, it may well be true to its title. That's because the cast will be made up entirely of blind actors, although the characters are all fully sighted. The play, about a group of people in a mystical land taking shelter during a crisis, was written and is being directed by Kokubo, who began teaching drama at the Braille Institute five years ago.

A widely used heart drug can sharply slow the progression of an inherited form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa, according to experiments in mice reported today by French researchers. This has the potential to be the first effective treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, commonly called RP, which afflicts as many as 200,000 people in the United States, according to the researchers.

A widely used heart drug can sharply slow the progression of an inherited form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa, according to experiments in mice reported today by French researchers. This has the potential to be the first effective treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, commonly called RP, which afflicts as many as 200,000 people in the United States, according to the researchers.

Bill Fulton — urban planner, urbane public speaker and mayor of Ventura — was starting to stumble. In dim meeting rooms, he had trouble reading. At the civic events he attended almost nightly, he left some people puzzled — even angered — when they extended their hands and he failed to grasp them. "I can't always see it when someone wants to shake hands with me," he said. "When you're a politician, that's not good. " Fulton, a member of Ventura's City Council since 2003, will step down from office Monday and leave town next spring, largely as an adjustment to an eye disease that is slowly robbing him of his sight.

After searching for more than a decade, scientists have found a gene for a disease that usually blinds men by age 30--a particularly severe form of retinitis pigmentosa, or RP. RP affects nearly 100,000 Americans. The gene, when defective, causes one of the most common forms of RP, accounting for about 10% to 20% of RP cases. The new gene, called RP3, is one of three genes on the X chromosome that cause severe RP that hits hardest in men. The two other genes have not been identified.

Large daily doses of Vitamin A can slow the slide toward blindness for patients with retinitis pigmentosa and may save years of eyesight for 100,000 Americans with the inherited affliction, a new study indicates. The same study also showed that large supplemental doses of Vitamin E actually accelerate the disease, said Dr. Eliot L. Berson, a Harvard Medical School researcher.