This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Harold Skalka, MD; Josef Prchal, MD
Birmingham, Ala

Arch Ophthalmol. 1984;102(4):507.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—We previously reported in the ARCHIVES¹ an increased incidence of bilateral "idiopathic" presenile (younger than age 50 years) cataracts in patients with reduced galactosemic enzyme levels. These cataracts were found to be posterior subcapsular (PSC) in type. We also found that younger patients with "secondary" cataracts had a higher than expected incidence of reduced galactosemic enzyme levels.

A recent study by Maraini et al2 of 26 patients with "bilateral 'idiopathic' presenile cataracts" (type unspecified) failed to corroborate our findings. These authors employed a different assay technique, and their normal values had an SD of 36% of the mean value for galactokinase (GK) and 42% for galactose-1-phosphate uridyl transferase (GPUT). Our corresponding SDs were 13% of the mean for GK and 10% for GPUT.

Since our original report, we have measured erythrocyte GK and GPUT levels in an additional 87 patients aged 50 years or younger with . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?