Prevalence of retinitis pigmentosa in South Indian population aged above 40 years.
OBJECTIVE
The study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in rural and urban South India.


METHODS
Seven thousand seven hundred and seventy four subjects aged 40 years or more from rural and urban Tamil Nadu, underwent comprehensive ophthalmic examination out of 9576 enumerated (81.17%). After a thorough ophthalmic examination, fundus photographs were taken for documentation. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS for Windows (ver 14).


RESULTS
7461 (95.9%) subjects had fundus details seen in both eyes. Thirteen subjects (0.17%; 4 males, 9 females) were diagnosed as retinitis pigmentosa. Retinitis pigmentosa in the urban population was seen in approximately 1 in 930 persons, while 1 in 372 of rural subjects had the disorder. This figure is greater than other reports from the western populations and that of the conservative estimate of 1 in 4000. The age and gender adjusted prevalence rate of retinitis pigmentosa to national census 2001 was 0.155%. Eight subjects (61.53%) had visual acuity less than 3/60.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of RP in South India appears to be alarmingly higher in comparison to those seen in other parts of the world.
Sen
Parveen
P
Bhagwan Mahavir Vitreo-Retinal Services, Medical Research Foundation, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. parveensen@gmail.com
Bhargava
Arun
A
George
Ronnie
R
Ve Ramesh
S
S
Hemamalini
Arvind
A
Prema
Raju
R
Kumaramanickavel
Govindasamy
G
Vijaya
Lingam
L
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012174:Retinitis Pigmentosa / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014792:Visual Acuity