The differential diagnosis of tapetoretinal degenerations.

Abstract

1. Definition of Tapetoretinal Degenerations Tapetoretinal degenerations are due to partial or complete destruction of a normally developed retina, not as a result of exogenous inflammatory or traumatic influences but due to endogenous influences which cause premature degeneration of the tissue. This retinal abiotrophy is hereditary; it is not known whether the action of the pathological gene is of the humoral, neural, or toxic type or whether the condition is simply based on diminution of the viability of retinal cells. Idiopathic retinitis pigmentosa is the prototype of a tapetoretinal degeneration. Various authors have grouped round this extremely characteristic affection a variable number of other affections of the ocular fundus, more or less characteristic and more or less closely related to retinitis pigmentosa, which are all referred to as tapetoretinal degenerations. Retinitis punctata albescens, for instance, is nearly identical with retinitis pigmentosa, whereas senile macular degeneration is only remotely connected with