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• Questions: Vitiligo and the Retina
• Posted: 2007-12-23 20:52:52 By Michelle W
• Our daughter (age 9) has vitiligo and there are some studies that say vitiligo can be linked with RP-like retina changes. She's never seen well in dim light - used to fuss if we went into a dark restaurant and insists that all the lights in the house remain on, even during the day. Recently she's said she can't see in the dark. She also can't see in the bright sun and likes to wear a sun visor and/or sun glasses.
  
  Does sound like typical RP-like behavior in a child? Its really confusing because she also has brain-damage related visual impairment (with normal acuity). Her visual fields were tested when she was about 7 and there was a mild loss of peripheral vision.
  
  Has anyone heard of vitiligo being associated with retina changes? What should we do next? Our daughter's next ophthalmology appt isn't until June. Can a pediatric ophthalmologist diagnose this sort of thing? How do we know if its progressive or not?
  
  Thank you very much!
  
  Michelle

• Re: Questions: Vitiligo and the Retina
• Posted: 2007-12-23 21:39:05 By carolina s
• Michelle
  I happen to have a bit of vitiligo on one foot
  and I think i have heard something like that before however as many retinologists that I have seen noone ever mentioned any relationship with both. I think there is a trend of thought that rp may be an auto-inmune dissease and so would vitiligo.
  Anyhow, how would that work ? the pigment that you lack in your skin you have it in the retina ? weird......
  carolina
  

• Re: Re: Questions: Vitiligo and the Retina
• Posted: 2007-12-23 21:47:32 By Michelle W
• Carolina,
  
  I first heard of a vitiligo/RP-like retina changs link from an article about a newscaster with vitiligo. I did a quick search and came up with this article: http://bjo.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/67/3/153. There's not many other articles in the literature other than this one (I do scientific research) for a living.
  
  Our daugher's vitiligo is pretty severe on her knees, not as bad on her elbows. She has some wherever there are pressure points, like shoes that rub her ankles or around her eyes from her swim goggles. Recently, some vitiligo has started showing up around her mouth.
  
  Michelle

• Re: Questions: Vitiligo and the Retina
• Posted: 2008-01-08 20:26:07 By Carol C
• Michelle, does your daughter have unusually colored eyes, or hearing loss? There is a syndrome called Waardenburg's that involves pigmentary changes in parts of the body, including the retina, and the inner ear. Affected people can have white forelocks, patches of skin that don't tan, eyebrows that grow as one straight across the eyes, and differently colored eyes or eyes that are an unusual brilliant blue color. Carol

• Re: Re: Questions: Vitiligo and the Retina
• Posted: 2008-01-08 20:57:35 By Michelle W
• Carol,
  
  Our daughter doesn't seem to have any of the symptoms of Waardenburg's other than the pigmentary changes (vitiligo). There's an interesting paper on vitiligo and the hearing and retina changes that can result by Gopal (Vitiligo: a part of a systemic autoimmune process.
  Gopal KV, Rama Rao GR, Kumar YH, Appa Rao MV, Vasudev P; Srikant.
  Department of Dermatology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, India. kvtgopal@yahoo.co.in, Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol. 2007 May-Jun;73(3):162-5.)
  
  Michelle
  

• Re: Re: Re: Questions: Vitiligo and the Retina
• Posted: 2008-01-08 20:59:55 By Michelle W
• Carol,
  
  I should have mentioned that our daughter has a mild hearing loss in one ear (like described in the Gopal paper) and night blindess (also described on other papers on vitiligo). We're still searching for some answers.
  
  Thanks for your suggestions!
  
  Michelle