Autoimmune retinopathy, a rare, blinding eye disease, has been shown to improve after treatment with drugs to suppress the patient's immune system, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center.
In a review of 30 patients with autoimmune retinopathy, 21 individuals showed improvement after receiving treatment with immunosuppression therapy. Improvement was defined by several measures, including the ability to read a minimum of two additional lines on the standard eye chart or expansion of at least 25 percent in visual field size.

     Autoimmune retinopathy (AIR) is like other autoimmune diseases in which the immune system goes awry and begins to attack healthy tissue. The patients in the current study were treated with various combinations of immunosuppression medications to counteract the unwanted autoantibodies from the immune system.

     "The results challenge the commonly held belief that autoimmune retinopathy is untreatable," says John R. Heckenlively, M.D., author of the study report printed in the April 2009 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology and an international expert on retinal dystrophies.

     Dr. Heckenlively says, "It is not easy to identify patients with AIR because the clinical symptoms are very similar to other diseases involving retinal degeneration." Typically these patients are diagnosed as having retinitis pigmentosa, a blinding eye disease for which there is no treatment. How can one group be distinguished from the other? According to Dr. Heckenlively, "The answer often is 'with difficulty.'"

     Although there is no single test to confirm a diagnosis of AIR, Dr. Heckenlively explains, "Most patients have characteristic symptoms and findings, as well as subtle abnormalities on electrophysiologic testing. All patients have anti-retinal antibodies on blood testing, but that finding alone is not diagnostic. The majority of cases have other family members with autoimmune disorders." He adds," A clear diagnosis relies on carefully weighing all these factors."

     "Now that we have evidence that immunosuppressant therapies work," observes Dr. Heckenlively, "we need further studies to evaluate which medications will be effective in treating autoimmune retinopathy."

     Dr. Heckenlively is affiliated with the Department of Ophthalmology, Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

--Source: Excerpted from "Study Reports Success in Treating a Rare Retinal Disorder," University of Michigan Health System Newsroom, contact Betsy Nisbet, April 13, 2009