Don't it make your brown eyes blue? A comparison of iris colour across latitude in Australian twins.

Background: The aim was to determine whether latitudinal (Queensland versus Tasmania) variation in reported disease frequency in Australia may be biased by differences in population.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted from data of two large Australian twin studies (n = 1,835) having undertaken ophthalmic examination, namely, Twins Eye Study in Tasmania (TEST) and the Brisbane Adolescent Twins Study (BATS). Ordinal logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios and predicted probabilities for each category of eye colour by state.

The Norfolk Island Eye Study (NIES): rationale, methodology and distribution of ocular biometry (biometry of the bounty).

Aim: To describe the recruitment, ophthalmic examination methods and distribution of ocular biometry of participants in the Norfolk Island Eye Study, who were individuals descended from the English Bounty mutineers and their Polynesian wives.

Methods: All 1,275 permanent residents of Norfolk Island aged over 15 years were invited to participate, including 602 individuals involved in a 2001 cardiovascular disease study. Participants completed a detailed questionnaire and underwent a comprehensive eye assessment including stereo disc and retinal photography, ocular coherence topography and conjunctival autofluorescence assessment.

Classification of iris colour: review and refinement of a classification schema.

Eye colour or, more accurately, iris colour is one of the most obvious physical characteristics of a person. European parents frequently ask the colour of their newborn's eyes, only to see the iris change dramatically during their child's first year of life. Genetic and epidemiological findings have uncovered further details about the basis for iris colour, which may have important implications for further research and treatment of some eye diseases and ocular characteristics.

Attitudes to predictive DNA testing for myocilin glaucoma: experience with a large Australian family.

Purpose: Glaucoma is a major cause of visual impairment and blindness in developed countries. Half of those with glaucoma are unaware that they have the disease. Mutations in the myocilin (MYOC) gene are responsible for 3 to 5% of primary open angle glaucoma, thus predictive DNA testing in family members of some glaucoma pedigrees is possible.

Glaucoma phenotype in pedigrees with the myocilin Thr377Met mutation.

Objective: To investigate the phenotype and age-related penetrance of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in Australian families with the myocilin mutation Thr377Met.

Method And Design: Cross-sectional genetic study. Four unrelated pedigrees carrying the Thr377Met mutation were ascertained from more than 2000 consecutive cases of POAG in the Glaucoma Inheritance Study in Tasmania and from families with glaucoma referred to the study from throughout Australia.

Tonography demonstrates reduced facility of outflow of aqueous humor in myocilin mutation carriers.

Purpose: To demonstrate the effect in vivo of the myocilin gene mutation Thr377Met on outflow facility of aqueous humor, as measured by tonography.

Materials And Methods: Forty-two members of a pedigree known to carry the Thr377Met mutation were examined for glaucoma, evaluated with tonography, and screened for myocilin mutations. Tonography was used to calculate the coefficient of aqueous outflow facility (C), as well as the ratio of the resting intraocular pressure to C (P(0)/C).