Refsum Disease from an Ophthalmology Perspective

Dr. Bart Leroy, MD, PhD will present the Ophthalmology side of Refsum Disease and the benefits of early diagnosis by clinicians.

Adult Refsum Disease is a genetic disorder impacting the metabolism of phytanic acid. The key symptoms are Retinitis Pigmentosa, loss of smell, hearing loss, numbness, balance issues, itchy skin, shortened fingers and toes. It is one of the few causes of Retinitis Pigmentosa that has a proven dietary therapy to slow vision and hearing loss. Therefore, early diagnosis is critical.

Presenter:

Dr. Bart Leroy is Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Staff Member at the Center for Medical Genetics at the Ghent University Hospital and Ghent University, where he has been working since 01/09/2001. He is Full Professor of Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Genetics at Ghent University. Since August 2013, Bart also has a part-time position (20%) as an attending physician at the Division of Ophthalmology & Center for Cellular & Molecular Therapeutics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Bart is an ophthalmologist and clinical geneticist specialized in inherited eye disorders and systemic conditions affecting the eye. In collaboration with Profs J Bennett, AM Maguire and T Aleman at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and the team in Ghent, Bart is involved in phenotyping and genotyping studies and gene therapy projects for inherited retinal blindness. In view of this latter work, he received a Senior Clinical Investigator grant of the Research Foundation - Flanders (Belgium) from 2010 to 2015 & 2015-2020. He is the (co-)recipient of 27 scientific grants and prizes. He is a member and Board member of several professional organizations, including the International Society for Genetic Eye Disease & Retinoblastoma and the Société de la Génétique Ophtalmologique Francophone and the Belgian Ophthalmological Society