At Last

The SPECIAL ARTICLE in this issue of theArchives 1 on a standard protocol for electroretinographic (ERG) testing represents a major advance for clinical electroretinography. Although the ERG has been used clinically for more than 40 years, to date there has been no uniformly accepted method for recording the signal, since various laboratories have employed different technologies and recording conditions (for such components as flash intensity, duration of adaptation, and stimulus color). As a consequence, it is difficult to compare ERG data throughout the world, either for the purpose of interpreting scientific literature or for the benefit of an individual patient who may be seen in different laboratories. Other medical tests such as the electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram have been standardized to varying degrees, while the ERG remains vulnerable to individual bias. We can now anticipate that standards will be developed before long for other ophthalmic procedures such as electro-oculography, visual-evoked