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| | eMedicine - Retinitis Pigmentosa : Article by David G Telander, MD, PhD |
 | | RP can be passed on by all types of inheritance: 20-25% is autosomal dominant, 15-20% is autosomal recessive, and 5-10% is X linked, while the remaining 45-50% is found in patients without any known affected relatives. |
 | | RP is a misnomer, as the word retinitis implies an inflammatory response, which has not been found to be a predominant feature of this condition. |
 | | Pathophysiology: RP is typically thought of as a rod-cone dystrophy in which the genetic defects cause cell death (apoptosis), predominantly in the rod photoreceptors; less commonly, the genetic defects affect the RPE and cone photoreceptors. |
| www.emedicine.com /oph/topic704.htm (7627 words) |
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