THE STUDY ON CIRCADIAN RHYTHM ABNORMALITY IN BLIND PATIENTS

1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 07557261
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 試験
• Research Field: Ophthalmology
• Research Institution: HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: TAGAWA Yoshitsugu Department of Ophthalmology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine. Associate Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (40109426)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): FUJIEDA Kenji Department of Pediatrics, Hokkaido University School of Medicine. Assistant Prof, 医学部付属病院, 講師 (60173407) ; HONMA Kenichi Department of Physiology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine. Professor, 医学部, 教授 (40113625)
• Project Period (FY): 1995 – 1996
• Keywords: blind patient / circadian rhythm / melatonin / cortisol

Research Abstract

We investigated the status of sleep-wake abnormalities in blind patients caused by various eye diseases. For that purpose we performed the examinations of inquiries to blind patients. We got a reply from 37 cases, ranging in age from 35 to 76 yrs (mean 64.6 yrs). Seven out of 37 cases (18.9%) answered complaining of sleep-wake abnormalities in various degrees. Insomnia, sleep disorder and daytime sleepiness were major subjective symptoms in those cases. We measured plasma melatonin concentrations in three cases. One case showed suppression of plasma melatonin whereas other two cases showed mormal melatonin levels as compared with those in normal healthy control. We also examined plasma cortisol level in twenty-three cases to evaluate the endocrine function, and we found no abnormality of plasma cortisol level in twenty-three cases.
The above findings suggest that there are some cases who show sleep-wake abnormalities and suppresion of melatonin in blind patients. We are going to examine in more detail the relations between sleep-wake abnormality, melatonin level and endocrine function such as cortisol, gonadotropin, LH and FSH.