Transient smartphone blindness: Relevance to misdiagnosis in neurologic practice
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Transient smartphone blindness (TSB) was recently described in 2 women who experienced recurrent episodes of monocular vision impairment immediately after viewing a smartphone.1 This physiologic phenomenon is caused by temporarily discrepant light adaptation levels between the 2 retinae. We confirm the phenomenon of TSB and its relevance to neurologic practice, including the potential for misdiagnosis as cerebrovascular disease or multiple sclerosis (MS).
Footnotes
Author contributions: S. Sathiamoorthy: data acquisition, drafting and revising the manuscript for intellectual content. D. Wingerchuk: study concept and design, data acquisition and interpretation, critical revision of the manuscript for intellectual content, study supervision.
Study funding: No targeted funding reported.
Disclosure: S. Sathiamoorthy reports no disclosures relevant to the manuscript. D. Wingerchuk receives research support from Alexion and TerumoBCT and personal compensation for consulting services provided to MedImmune for a neuromyelitis optica clinical trial adjudication panel and for services as co-Editor-in-Chief of The Neurologist. Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures.
- Received August 17, 2016.
- Accepted in final form November 7, 2016.
- © 2017 American Academy of Neurology
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Letters: Rapid online correspondence
- Response: Transient smartphone blindness: Relevance to misdiagnosis in neurologic practice
- Gregory Y. Chang, Neurohospitalist, UC Davis Medical Center[email protected]
- Jolene Rudell, Sacramento, CA
Submitted March 20, 2017 - Re:Differential visual perception following monocular exposure to bright screen
- Dean M. Wingerchuk, Professor of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ[email protected]
- Saraniya Sathiamoorthi, Rochester, MN
Submitted February 28, 2017 - Differential visual perception following monocular exposure to bright screen
- Koushik Tripathy, Ophthalmologist, Department of Vitreoretina, Uvea, and Neuro-Ophthalmology, ICARE Eye Hospital & Postgraduate Institu[email protected]
- Trina Sengupta, New Delhi
Submitted February 14, 2017
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