Visual color distortion resulting from influenza infection

David G. Humes

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Dec 28, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/28/96

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Greetings,

I'm just starting to get over a bout with the flue and was wondering if anyone
has heard of anything like this. First, just so you know I really have the
flue as opposed to a rhinovirus, my symptoms included a temperature that
peaked at 103, chills, headache, nausea, weakness, muscle and joint pain, sore
throat, cough, and runny nose. Now, the really strange symptom that became
apparent on the first day of the infection and persists now 48 hours later, is
that my perception of color is distorted. Everything seems to have a
greenish-yellow tint. The problem seems to be worse in the evening and better
in the morning.
Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

=============================================================================
Dave Humes >> d.humes.@internetMCI.com <<
=============================================================================

Gary Carter

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Dec 28, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/28/96

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Dear David -

In 1989 I had a somewhat similar experience with a virus, and saw a
number
of doctors about it. Apparently, viruses can affect nerves associated
with vision.

I had two apparently different viruses in a row. After what I believe
was
a week or more of the first one, it seemed I was just about over it when
the second one hit - sore throat, runny nose, pains all over again.
Sometime during that one, one morning I woke up and noticed a difficulty
fusing the images from my two eyes. I quickly shut my eyes, reopened,
looked at several different views, and things seemed OK then. Forgot
about it.

Next morning, the problem was there to stay. This was quite alarming.
I
wondered if I had a brain tumor. I was seeing seriously double unless
I closed one eye or the other. Bummer, let me tell you.

Saw my local family practice M.D. After examination and some search
through the medical books, he said it looked pretty much like a disease
called "Bell's palsy". Arranged for me to go to Sacramento for an MRI.
Also referred me to a local neurologist. Neurologist said it could be
myasthenia gravis. Sent me to lab for blood sample to be tested for
acetylcholine (is this right?) antibodies. Gave me
an interesting and expensive in-office test for myasthenia gravis - came
out negative. Referred me to local opthalmology office. The days and
office visits were starting to pile up here.

The opthalmology visit was a total gas. These two fresh-faced young
Drs.
had no idea what my problem was. One of them would stumble over
pronunciation of some exceptionally polysyllabic medical term, then
hustle
out to confer with his buddy. Then the buddy would come in and look at
me
for a minute, mumble some other terminology as if just learning a
foreign
language, then out the door for more conferring. I was paying these
guys
for this! but I was getting my money's worth in humor, that's for
sure.
I left that office laughing inside over the entertainment value, but
these
guys had no clue. Impossible for them to admit they didn't know what
they
were talking about in my case.

The MRI produced dozens of fascinating pictures of my brain - all
perfectly normal. It was a surprisingly intense sensation to look at
these and realize that's MY BRAIN I'm looking at.

(Also interesting that I was billed $1250 for this - but after I got the
insurance company involved they decided it really only cost $850. It's
an
outrage that if you pay as an individual you get gouged simply because
they can get away with it.>

My family practice Dr. then managed to get me in to see a fellow who
actually knew what he was doing, a combined opthalmologist/neurologist
who
was also dept head of one of those departments at UC Davis Medical
School.
He immediately recognized my eye pointing problem, and in 20 seconds
flat
with a little plastic stick containing several prisms imbedded in it,
some
deft flicking motions, and closely watching my eye, he measured exactly
how many degrees off I was (about 15 deg. at the time). Those previous
young eye doctors must have read about these divergences in their
studies,
but sure seemed thrown for a loop when actually confronted by one - and
they never made any attempt to measure it or even look at it.

He then rendered his measured opinion: from time to time, viruses seem
to cause nerve damage. He said he got a number of cases a year, a
mother
will bring her kid in, suddenly one morning one eye is looking ahead and
the other is pointing at his left shoe. And oh yes he just had a runny
nose sore throat etc. Most of the time they go away spontaneously in
a few weeks, once in a while after a couple of months. After that,
probably
here to stay. He said we could do some interesting studies to try to
track down exactly where the damage was, but it would be expensive and
he wouldn't be able to do anything about even if we did know the
details.

If virus-affecting-nerve is what happened in your case, I sincerely hope
yours will be one of the ones that spontaneously reverts, David.

In my case I got a piece of rubbery plastic with ridges on it, called
a Fresnel prism, which I could press to the back of one of the lenses
of my glasses to shift the image 5 degrees. This was enough that my
brain could figure out the rest, although it felt funny. After a couple
of weeks I got disgusted with the smudging of the image this add-on
produced and ripped it out and threw it away. To my surprise my
brain by now had figured out how to handle things, and simply
adjusted its adaptation. I now had fusion again, albeit with a low
level sense of strain that I mostly didn't notice. Another visit to the
the fellow at UC Davis showed that my divergence had settled down
to 8 degrees, and there it has stayed ever since. I knew I could get
a prismatic correction in my glasses lenses but I never bothered.

I recently got LASIK and the divergence doesn't seem to affect anything.

Ray Rose

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Dec 30, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/30/96

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David G. Humes wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> I'm just starting to get over a bout with the flue and was wondering if anyone
> has heard of anything like this. First, just so you know I really have the
> flue as opposed to a rhinovirus, my symptoms included a temperature that
> peaked at 103, chills, headache, nausea, weakness, muscle and joint pain, sore
> throat, cough, and runny nose. Now, the really strange symptom that became
> apparent on the first day of the infection and persists now 48 hours later, is
> that my perception of color is distorted. Everything seems to have a
> greenish-yellow tint. The problem seems to be worse in the evening and better
> in the morning.
> Any ideas?

My whole family (wife, 4-year-old son, myself) suffered from the flu
over the last few days. For those who haven't experienced it, if you
have a really bad cold with complications that you think might be the
flu, it probably isn't. If you have the flu, you will KNOW it. I did
notice a couple interesting phenomena. The first indication that
something was amiss with my son was when he woke up at 2:00 am and
started whining "I don't like the smell." He insisted something in his
room smelled so bad, he just couldn't stay there. He then demanded that
I go downstairs to the sofa and sleep with him there. My wife, after she
was able to stand up, decided to take a shower. After she came out, she
said that the water tasted very sweet - like it was full of sugar.

Neither of them had any unusual visual effects though. However, during
the worst of it, I noticed that my close-up vision was worse than usual.
Considering the kind of mega-headaches that came with this flu, I
suppose it's not surprising that it would have some neurological
effects. I have since studied everything I could find on the web about
influenza but could find nothing on this topic.

Ray Rose

Wayne Farmer

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Dec 31, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/31/96

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>David G. Humes wrote:
>>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I'm just starting to get over a bout with the flue and was wondering if anyone
>> has heard of anything like this. First, just so you know I really have the
>> flue as opposed to a rhinovirus, my symptoms included a temperature that
>> peaked at 103, chills, headache, nausea, weakness, muscle and joint pain, sore
>> throat, cough, and runny nose. Now, the really strange symptom that became
>> apparent on the first day of the infection and persists now 48 hours later, is
>> that my perception of color is distorted. Everything seems to have a
>> greenish-yellow tint. The problem seems to be worse in the evening and better
>> in the morning.
>> Any ideas?

Strictly an amateur viewpoint: Since the light perceived by the retina
travels through the aqueous humor, the vitreous humor, and the retina's blood
vessels to reach the retina, any changes in the color or composition of these
fluids could cause the light reaching the retina to assume different shades of
color. Your blood composition will change during an infection, as increasing
numbers of white cells populate it.

Leonard Evens

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Dec 31, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/31/96

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From what I have read on the subject, I think this explanation is not
likely to be correct. Color perception in the end takes place in the
visual cortex in the brain, not in the retina, although that of course
plays a role. For example, we see the same colors more or less in
artificial light and in daylight although the actual response of cones
in the retina is quite different because the spectral compositions of
the light is different. Some of this processing takes place in the
retina, but much more of it probably takes place at higher levels in the
brain.

I once did appear to experience a difference in color vision in my two
eyes, though, which I attributed to something happening in my eyes,
possibly a yellowing of one lens. However, anything which appears to
happen to both eyes at the same time is more likely to be caused by
something in the brain.

--
Leonard Evens l...@math.nwu.edu 491-5537
Department of Mathematics, Norwthwestern University
Evanston Illinois

Raymond A. Chamberlin

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Jan 3, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/3/97

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Leonard Evens <l...@math.nwu.edu> wrote:

Well, the Farmer doesn't like the "amateur's" explanation and the
mathematician doesn't like the Farmer's explanation. I've never had
the flu or any other ailment affect any of my senses, so obviously I'm
unbiased and fully qualified to comment here. ;-) I don't really
know anything about the empirical probabilities involved either. But
the mathematician is kind of taking a mathematical leap, I think, in
saying that *anything* that "happen[s] to both eyes is more likely to
be caused by something in the brain". That conclusion obviously
depends on *most* things that to the eyes' having independent
probabilities of affecting both eyes, together with ease of access, by
the cause, to the brain somewhat equal to that to the eyes. It seems
to me that *most* infections like the flu, which affect a fair range
of organs in the body, are *most* likely to affect both eyes (probably
rather indirectly) -- and *less* likely to affect the isolated brain.
The color description given said "greenish". This is complementary to
the red of blood, which might indicate *less* blood in the optical
path during the flu than otherwise, and a period of delayed adequte
compensation for this in the nervous system. Of course, there are
probably a dozen other theories, so I wouldn't sell this one at full
price.

Flus can hit you with anything in the full spectrum of force, from
very mildly to a real knockout, depending on the match of your system
to the particular strain of flu and how heavy the dosage. They come
into the S. F. Bay Area here, different almost every year, from the
Orient. They tell us what turns up here has to do with how close the
Chinese are to their pigs and how close their pigs are to their ducks.
(I don't know; I've heard lots of stories like that in the past that
sort of derived from things very different from science.) Anyhow,
there don't appear to be any really bad bugs this year. I got one
already that was a real pussy (but not a regular cold).

But then, the first poster said he caught the "flue". Maybe you do
see different colors if you stick your face in the flue while the
stove is on.

Ray (and engineer's explanation while ignorant of the whole matter)

David G. Humes

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Jan 6, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/6/97

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Well, after being mostly recovered from the FLU, and having had the
opportunity to ponder my situtation some more, here is an update from the
original poster. It is now 13 days after the onset of the infection,
and my color perception is still distorted. It is, however, much improved.
I seem to have the most difficulty with white and light shades of grey.
These still appear greenish. The best way to describe the color is to
imagine how things appear when illuminated with a gas lamp.

I have discussed the issue with our family doctor and have been evaluated
by an opthalmologist. Neither one could offer any explanation. Since the
problem had a somewhat transient nature to it during the severe phase of the
infection, i.e. better in the morning and worse in the evening, I suggested
that maybe changing sinus pressure on the optic nerves could be a possible
explanation. The opthalmologist replied that the optic nerves are surrounded
by the sinus cavities, so he would not rule this out. However, at this
point I have little excessive sinus pressure, so I think it is safe to
rule out that explanation.

I too recognized that diminished transmission of red wavelengths would result
in a greenish tint. I was thinking more in terms of selective aborption in
the red part of the spectrum, but I think that Mr. Chamberlin's description is
quite plausible. However, I would like to hear why there might be less blood
in the optical path during the infection than normal. My opinion at this
point
is that a virus can get into almost anything, and that in my case it may have
either
affected the cones in my retina or the optic nerves. I am not aware of the
optic nerves having different fibers for carrying different parts of the
spectrum. So, it is a little difficult to imagine how selective damage to the
optic nerves could result in this situation. If I had to bet, I'd guess it

Raymond A. Chamberlin

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Jan 8, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/8/97

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d.h...@internetMCI.com (David G. Humes) wrote:

>
..................

>
>I am not aware of the
>optic nerves having different fibers for carrying different parts of the
>spectrum.

Well, color perception only works because there are three different
kinds of cones, each with a different pigment, so the first-level
neurons from the cones certainly have to be color-selective. As I
understand it, somewhere soon thereafter, neurally a green-red channel
is compared to a blue-yellow channel for color evaluation, but I'm not
up on this stuff.

So bacterial infections often look green. Maybe you're seeing some
tinting from a post-flu bacterial infection -- I don't think.

Ray