Electrophysiology and inherited retinal disorders

An understanding of electrophysiologic procedures and their application is crucial for evaluating patients with inherited retinal disorders. This review emphasizes the value of electrophysiologic procedures in the differential diagnosis of clinically similar disorders, the evaluation of atypical presentations of known retinal disorders, and the determination of the extent of dysfunction in photoreceptor-retinal pigment epithelial disease. It is important for each investigator to assess quantitatively the short-term variability inherent in each electrophysiologic procedure so that meaningful data can be obtained on the natural history of the various inherited retinal disorders being monitored.