Oguchi's disease

A rare, non-progressive congenital night blindness (hemeralopia) with onset in childhood. It is characterized by a golden or diffuse greyish white discoloration of the fundus and reduced visual sensitivity after more than 30 minutes in darkness. The colour of fundus disappears after a prolonged stay in darkness (Mizuo-Nakamura phenomenon), and visual sensitivity is restored. Both sexes affected. Commonly found in Japan, rare in the U.S.A. and Europe. Inheritance is autosomal recessive.

In 1907 at the Army Hospital in Tokyo, Chuta Oguchi examined a soldier who complained of night blindness: the patient was suspected of malingering. Oguchi found a peculiar fundus colour with golden and mottled appearance and dark retinal vessels. He also found that the parents of this patient were cousins. He further added similar cases in 1910, and concluded that this is a distinct clinical entity with congenital hemeralopia with recessive inheritance.

The term "Oguchi's disease" was introduced by professor Jujiro Komoto, and in the North-American literature in 1939 by B. A. Klien.

We thank William Charles Caccamise Sr, MD, Pittsford, New York, for information submitted.

• C. Oguchi:
  Über eine Abart von Hemeralopie. [Concerning a variety of night blindness]
  First published in the Japanese language.
  Acta Societatis ophthalmologicae Japonicae. Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi, Tokyo, 1907, 11 (3): 123-134.
  
  
• C. Oguchi:
  [Another case of one kind of night blindness.]
  Acta Societatis ophthalmologicae Japonicae. 1910, 14: 636-639.
• C. Oguchi:
  Über die eigenartige Hemeralopie mit diffuser weissgräulicher Verfärbung des Augenhintergrundes.
  [Concerning a peculiar night blindness with diffuse greyish-white discoloration of the fundus]
  Albrecht von Graefes Archiv für Ophthalmologie, Berlin, 1912, 81: 109-117.
• G. Mizuo, G. Nakamura:
  Zum Wesen der sogenannten Oguchi'schen Krankheit.
  Nippon Ganka gakkai zasshi, 1914, 18: 73-126.
• C. Oguchi:
  Zur Anatomie der sogenannten Oguchischen Krankheit.
  [Albrecht von Graefes] Archiv für Ophthalmologie, Berlin, 1925; 115: 234.
• B. A. Klien:
  A case of so-called Oguchi's disease in the USA.
  American Journal of Ophthalmology, New York, 1939, 22: 953-955.
• W. C. Caccamise:
  Congenital nonprogressive night blindness.
  Bulletin of the U.S. Armye Medical department, Washington DC, 1949, 9: 920- 928.
  Caccamise reported several cases that he examined in Japan in 1949 .