Rod and cone activity in patients with dominantly inherited retinitis pigmentosa: comparisons between psychophysical and electroretinographic measurements.

Extended electroretinographic (ERG) testing has been carried out in a series of patients with retinitis pigmentosa, dominantly inherited. In 36 of 57 cases only cone b waves were evoked. In 20 of these, psychophysical tests showed only cones mediated vision (Massof class I), while in 16 statis scotopic perimetry demonstrated residual rod function (class II). In the remaining cases, where rod ERGs were seen, the light intensities required to evoke responses were not greatly elevated. A computer model was constructed to relate psychophysical threshold measurements to ERG data. This analysis of the results suggests that in one subgroup of patients the scotopic ERG is smaller than expected from the losses of visual field and that in another the psychophysical elevation of rod visual threshold is greater than expected from ERG measurements.