Anna Brouwer

Prolonged cone b-IT in relation to retinal layer analysis regions on the ETDRS grid. If this thinning continues towards periphery, it may be of much greater influence on the cone b-IT. In summary, we have shown a correlation between structural and functional changes in uveitis. The observed changes in the INL and IPL can help in our understanding of the possible causes of a prolonged cone b-IT on ERG. However, the observed correlation was weak, and other clinical factors including age and uveitis activity showed similar weak correlations to the thickness of retinal layers. Thus, there is a relation between function and structure, but a prolonged cone b-IT cannot be fully explained by differences in retinal thickness on OCT alone. Because the ERG investigates the retina in a different manner than theOCT and the observed correlations were weak, there may be an additional role for the ERG in the understanding of the effects of uveitis on the retina. Further research is necessary to evaluate if changes occur first on the ERG or on OCT, in order to assess if the ERG can be used for prognosis and treatment decisions in uveitis. Acknowledgements We would like to thank all patients for participating in the study. The authors were supported by the following foundations: Dr. F.P Fischer Stichting, and Bartiméus Fonds that contributed through UitZicht (the Netherlands). The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research. They provided unrestricted grants. A.H. Brouwer, V.J.M. Hortensius, N.H. ten Dam., R. Wijnhoven and M.M. van Genderen have no financial disclosures. G.C. de Wit is employed as a medical physicist at Bartiméus, a low vision institute in the Netherlands. Furthermore, he is a sole proprietor, with his company Optical Diagnostics (http:/ www.opticaldiagnostics. com) he develops and sells ophthalmic software products and does sometimes consulting work. J.H. de Boer was payed by Abbvie for lectures. We thank J. Ossewaarde-van Norel and L. Ho (University Medical Centre Utrecht), for their help in recruiting patients to participate in this research, D. Gültzau, Y. Burgers andM. Ballast (University Medical Centre Utrecht) for their help in recording the ERGs, F. Riemslag and H. Talsma (Bartiméus Diagnostic Centre for complex visual disorders, Zeist) for giving additional electrophysiological advice and S. Risseeuw (University Medical Centre Utrecht) for her statistical advice. 105 4