OCULAR CONDITIONS OF BORN BLINDS IN KHARTOUM STATE

Abstract

Abstract This study is considered to be the first study in Sudan concemed with bom blinds subjects. It aimed to find out.the main causes of bom blindness, estimate the biometric measurements, study the role of inheritance of born blindness through their families and to suggest some means for prevention. Personal history, outer and inner ocular examinations and biometric measurements (including retinoscopy, keratometry, ophthalmoscopy, ultrasonography and tonometry) were taken along with family history of bom blindness. The study involved 120 Sudanese born blinds (91 males and 29 females) from Sudanese National Association of The Blinds and Alnoor Institute and Umbada Centre for The Blinds. Their mean ages ranged between 8 to 42 years with a mean of 23.25 years i 8.1, and their visual acuities between CF to no PL. The results were statistically analyzed. However, BARDBIS program was used for the pedigrees analysis. The study revealed the following results: The most frequent causes of born blindness were found to be congenital cataract (28.33 %), corneal abnormalities (28.33 %), optic nerve defects (27.5 %) followed by retinal abnormalities (5.83 %) and structural abnormalities (3.33 %). However, 6.67 % of the subjects were without obvious ocular anatomical defects. The biometric measurements showed that the eyes of the born blinds seemed to be similar and they were characterized by flatter corneal curvatures, shorter axial lengths, thin comeas, hypermetropic refractive state and normal intraocular pressure.

Most of the subjects showed positive family history of born blindness in their families (70.59 % of congenital cataract, 57.65 % of corneal dystrophies and 72.7 % of congenital optic nerve atrophy). Consanguineous marriage was found to be a causative factor in transition of born blindness through the families (94.12 % of congenital cataract, 82.35 % of corneal dystrophies and 100 % of congenital optic nerve atrophy). Bom blindness was found to be inherited through the families in all patterns of inheritance, autosomal dominant was of least frequency (8.82 % of congenital cataract, 5.88 % of corneal dystrophies), autosomal recessive inheritance was the most frequent one (44.12 % of congenital cataract, 52.94 % of comeal dystrophies and 60.6 % of congenital optic nerve atrophy) and X- link pattern (17.65 % of congenital cataract subjects, and 12.1 % of congenital optic nerve atrophy) and single (sporadic) case (29.41 % of congenital cataract, 41.18 % of corneal dystrophies and 27.3 % of congenital optic nerve atrophy). Key words: Born blindness, biometric, consanguinity, family history, pedigree