Retinitis pigmentosa associated with a mutation in BEST1.

Purpose: There is only one prior report associating mutations in BEST1 with a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The imaging studies presented in that report were more atypical of RP and shared features of autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy and autosomal dominant vitreoretinochoroidopathy. Here, we present a patient with a clinical phenotype consistent with classic features of RP.

Observations: The patient in this report was diagnosed with simplex RP based on clinically-evident bone spicules with characteristic ERG and EOG findings. The patient had associated massive cystoid macular edema which resolved following a short course of oral acetazolamide. Genetic testing revealed that the patient carries a novel heterozygous deletion mutation in which is not carried by either parent. While this suggests is causative, the patient also inherited heterozygous copies of several mutations in other genes known to cause recessive retinal degenerative disease.

Conclusions And Importance: How some mutations in associate with peripheral retinal degeneration phenotypes, while others manifest as macular degeneration phenotypes is currently unknown. We speculate that RP due to mutation requires mutations in other modifier genes.