Effect of Levodopa on Human Multifocal Electroretinogram

Medical University of Vienna

Status and phase

Completed

Phase 4

Conditions

Retinal Diseases

Treatments

Drug: levodopa

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00812760

OPHT-220501

Details and patient eligibility

About

It is known that dopamine is a functional neuromodulator at several levels of the visual system. Dopamine seems to be involved in the organization of the ganglion cell and the bipolar cell receptive fields and modulation of physiological activity of photoreceptors. There is evidence for the functional significance of dopaminergic modulation of visual sensitivity in humans which confirms the hypothesis that dopamine plays an important role in retinal light adaptation as well as in motion and contrast sensitivity function. The electrophysiological effects of dopamine, various dopamine antagonist and levodopa in animals and humans have been investigated by means of visual evoked potentials and electroretinograms. The multifocal ERG technique, developed by Sutter et al. allows a rapid, simultaneous recording of focal ERGs from multiple retinal locations. Although this technique is relatively new, it has already provided insights into the mechanisms of retinal diseases (e.g. involvement of visual system in Parkinson disease), but until now there is no data on influence of dopaminergic substances on mERG.

Enrollment

20 patients

Sex

Male

Ages

19 to 35 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Men aged between 19 and 35 years, nonsmokers
Body mass index between 15th and 85th percentile
Normal findings in the medical history and physical examination unless the investigator considers an abnormality to be clinically irrelevant
Normal laboratory values unless the investigator considers an abnormality to be clinically irrelevant
Normal ophthalmic findings, ametropia < 3 Dpt

Exclusion criteria

Regular use of medication, abuse of alcoholic beverages, participation in a clinical trial in the 3 weeks preceding the study
Treatment in the previous 3 weeks with any drug
Symptoms of a clinically relevant illness in the 3 weeks before the first study day
History of hypersensitivity to the trial drug or to drugs with a similar chemical structure
History or presence of gastrointestinal, liver or kidney disease, or other conditions known to interfere with, distribution, metabolism or excretion of study drugs
Blood donation during the previous 3 weeks