Retinitis Pigmentosa, Late-Adult Onset

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Retinitis pigmentosa with onset of symptoms in the fifth or sixth decade is called senile retinitis pigmentosa. Bonneau et al. (1992) reported a family with 2 affected sisters whose parents were first cousins. Symptoms began in their fifties. The family originated from an area of France where consanguinity is not frequent. Grondahl (1987) described a Norwegian family in which 3 sibs had RP diagnosed at 58, 61, and 57 years of age; the parents came from the same Norwegian island and might have been consanguineous. In a survey of clinical aspects of RP in 93 families, Kaplan et al. (1990) found that autosomal recessive RP represented 21.5% of cases or 25.8% if isolated cases with consanguineous parents were considered. They found 2 main clinical profiles: one type was characterized by precocious onset (mean age, 7.5 years) and severe progression, whereas the second type occurred later (mean age, 17 years) and had a milder clinical course. RP with late onset (senile RP) may represent a third type of autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa.