Acute optic neuropathy of Leber

The unusual pattern of inheritance of Leber's optic neuropathy is well known. Clinically, the disease has been described as due to an X-linked recessive character and more recently, other modes of inheritance have been described. A recent threory is that Leber's optic neuropathy is a viral infection with vertical transmission from mother to children, in which the expression of the disease is dependent upon genetically determined resistance. A family with Leber's optic neuropathy is described in which the acute onset of the disease in three male members and the clinical course with a short encephalitic episode preceding the eye symptoms were highly suggestive of latent viral infection as an etiological factor.