Reduction on OFF-responses of Electroretinogram in Monkeys with Long-term High Intraocular Pressure

BACKGROUND: There are ON- and OFF-pathways in the normal vertebrate retina. Short- and long-flash electroretinogram (ERG) are suitable methods to observe the function of ON- and OFF-pathways in vivo, respectively. It is clear that high intraocular pressure (IOP) might cause dysfunction of cone-dominated photopic negative response (PhNR) in monkeys with high IOP in ON-pathway. However, whether cone-dominated OFF-responses are also affected is less known. The aim of this study was to observe photopic OFF-responses of ERG in monkeys with high IOP. METHODS: Nine monkeys were involved in the experiment from January 2006 to December 2016. High IOP was induced in the right eye by laser coagulation of the mid-trabecular meshwork in five monkeys. Six years after the laser coagulation, both short- and long-flash of the photopic ERG were recorded. Stimulus light was red flashes superimposed on a blue background. Four normal monkeys were examined under the same ERG protocols as controls. Paired t-test was used to compare the difference of each ERG parameter between the lasered eye and the fellow eye. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey adjustment was adopted to calculate the differences among the lasered eye, the fellow eye, and the eyes of normal monkeys. RESULTS: The mean amplitude of a-wave (11.73 ± 2.05) and PhNR (8.67 ± 2.44) in lasered eyes was significantly lower than that of a-wave (21.47 ± 3.15) and PhNR (22.05 ± 3.42) in fellow eyes (P = 0.03 and P = 0.01, respectively) in response to short flash. The mean amplitude of d-wave (1.60 ± 0.59) and i-wave (3.13 ± 0.64) was significantly reduced in the lasered eyes than that of d-wave (4.01 ± 0.56) and i-wave (8.79 ± 1.75) in the fellow eyes (P = 0.02 and P = 0.02, respectively) in response to long flash. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced OFF-responses are recorded in monkeys with high IOP when dysfunction of photoreceptor is involved. The reduced OFF-responses to long-flash stimulus show evidence of anomalous retinal circuitry in glaucomatous retinopathy.