title: Changes in the DC electroretinogram in Briard dogs with hereditary congenital night blindness and partial day blindness.
abstract: Five Briard dogs, 7-12 months old, with congenital night blindness and severely reduced day vision (offspring of a sister and brother with congenital and supposedly stationary night blindness but with normal or nearly normal day vision) and three normal control dogs were studied by means of direct current (DC) electroretinography in order to analyse fast and slow retinal and pigment epithelial (RPE) potentials. No definite a- and b-waves were seen in the affected dogs in the dark-adapted state, which indicates severely impaired rod function. All affected dogs responded to 30 Hz flickering light in the light-adapted state, although with an amplitude reduced by 50-70%. Thus, cone function was better preserved than rod function. The control dogs showed a small c-wave and a deep negative trough between the b- and c-waves, indicating that slow PIII from the Müller cells, as well as the photoreceptor potential, are very prominent. In the affected dogs, there was no c-wave, but from a stimulus intensity of 3 log U above the normal b-wave threshold, a slow negative potential appeared, the latency and peak time of which were very long, 5-7 and 11-15 sec, respectively. With increasing stimulus intensities, both parameters decreased substantially, whereas the amplitude increased to a maximum of 2400 microV. In the light-adapted state, the dog with the best day vision showed a negative potential of short duration (peak time about 0.2 sec), followed by a positive potential (peak time about 1.2 sec).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wrigstad
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Narfström
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003623:Dark Adaptation / Q000502:physiology; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000151:congenital*; D004285:Dogs; D004596:Electroretinography; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009755:Night Blindness / Q000151:congenital / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010857:Pigment Epithelium of Eye / Q000503:physiopathology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology