Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:229-232
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Electroretinograms in autism: a pilot study of b-wave amplitudes
ER Ritvo, D Creel, G Realmuto, AS Crandall, BJ Freeman, JB Bateman, R Barr, C Pingree, M Coleman and R Purple
Division of Mental Retardation, UCLA School of Medicine.
The authors recorded electroretinograms for 27 autistic patients and 20
age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Thirteen (48%) of the autistic
patients demonstrated subnormal b-wave amplitudes, which may indicate
abnormal retinal function. One patient was tested serially at two sites;
his low b-wave amplitude did not vary over time or between the two sites.
If this retinal finding can be confirmed at other laboratories and in
larger samples of autistic patients, it might provide a marker for a
specific subtype of autism.
