Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON)
A disease entity that most commonly affects young men in their teens and early twenties and causes significantly decreased central vision in both eyes. The genes that cause LHON are carried on small circular mitochondrial DNA molecules that are inherited from an individuals mother. This condition is extremely rare (affecting fewer than 1 per million people per year) and does not affect everyone who harbors the genetic defect. The visual field defects in LHON are typically cecocentral scotomas. There are three other eye diseases named after Theodore Leber: 1) Leber congenital amaurosis (blindness at birth) inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion, 2) Leber’s stellate neuroretinopathy (a non-heritable condition associated with cat scratch disease) and 3) Leber’s military aneurysms (a non-heritable vascular malformation of the retina similar to Coat’s disease).