Talk:Heterochromia

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Contents 1 More info 2 Split the articles 3 Examples 4 Associated with human chimerism?

[edit] More info

More information on this disorder would be good. For example, does it effect vision? Is the condition that causes this the same one that causes some people to have different colored eyes? IANAD, so I can't answer these questions... :-( — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:26, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)

As the guy who supplied the picture, I can tell you it doesn't have effect vision. The condition that causes two eyes of different colour is Heterochromia Iridium, instead of Iridis. The two often get confused and some people interchange them.

Does it only occur in caucasians? Purple Rose 16:16, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

This condition is often misdescribed. Sometimes the condition described by the image is called 'Sectoral Heterochromia Iridis, and Heterochromia Iridium. Perhaps a final word on this would be wise. I also have a semi-colored iris, and this does not cause any problems with vision.

Heterochromia occurs in all people, I've just posted a photo of a Hispanic woman with two different coloured eyes. --Speakslowly 04:53, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Split the articles

Don't heterochromia iridis and heterochromia iridium deserve separate articles, particulary since they're two different traits that are often confused? Joygerhardt 07:00, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

I agree. Heterochromia iridium redirects here, so it shouldn't be difficult to remove the redirect command and cut the information from here and paste it there. It would considerably shorten both articles to do that, though. It might make more sense to create Heterochromia, which does not yet exist, and put both the info for both of them on that page. Thoughts? AED 07:26, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

On second thought - I Googled the terms and found no consensus in the terminology. For instance, this medical dictionary states that "heterochromia iridis" is what this article has termed "heterochromia iridium" [1]. If "iridis" is plural of "iris", then it makes sense that the definition here is wrong. (It gets even more confusing when noting that you can have bilateral multicolored irises.) I still think all the information should still be moved to Heterochromia where the differences can be told. AED 07:54, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

"Iridis" is the genitive singular form of the word "iris," so it means "...of the iris" (referring to one iris). "Iris" has several meanings in Latin: "Iris, goddess of the rainbow," "rainbow," or "iris of the eye." (The word derives from Greek.) "Heterochromia iridium" should really be "heterochromia iridum," where the "iridum" means "...of irises" (referring to more than one iris). I'm not sure how that extra "i" slipped in there. "Iridium" is a chemical element. When "iris" is treated as a Latin noun (like it is in "heterochromia iridum"), it is not a third-declension "i" stem, so it doesn't have the form "iridium." On the moon, there is an area named Sinus Iridum. In this case, the "Iridum" means "...of rainbows," but it's the same "iridum" found in "heterochromia iridum." You're likely to see "heterochromia iridium" elsewhere, but it's unlikely that the person who wrote it knows Latin. Ian-Miller 08:50, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Should there be a small section in the article about how "Heterochromia Iridium" should be, in terms of Latin grammar, "Heterochromia Iridum"? There are ways to determine whether the extra "i" should be in there, but they're technical grammatical rules.

Incidentally, I found moon maps (such as this one) that show "Sinus Iridium," but that doesn't refute what I wrote above. It seems to be in a similar situation as "Heterochromia Iridium": most people wouldn't know the difference. Ian-Miller 05:29, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

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Neglecting any obvious mirror sites of this or other Wiki articles, my brief Google search found three laypersons who agree with this article's definition of heterochromia iridis [2][3][4] but only one professional who does [5]. On the other hand, I found at least five professional websites or professionals who state that heterochromia iridis is what this article has defined as heterochromia iridium [6][7][8][9][10] and four others who state heterochromia iridis can refer to both the binocular and the monocular conditions [11] [12] [13] [14]. There are very few professional references that comment on heterochromia iridium, but the professional noted above who supports this article's definition of heterochromia iridis also supports this article's definition of heterochromia iridium.

I think the lack of professional references to heterochromia iridium are simply because of what Ian-Miller suggested: it is spelled incorrectly, primarily by laypersons. Heterochromia iridum gets fewer Google hits, but the hits it does get appear to come from professionals confirming that it applies to either the binocular or both the binocular and the monocular conditions. One optometric physician's extensive glossary on eye-terminology states that [15], heterochromia iridis and heterochromia iridum are just the opposite of what this article has defined.

I found one E-medicine article that summarizes succinctly the issue as I see it: "heterochromia iridum" [is] "more commonly known as heterochromia iridis". In my opinion, this Wikipedia article is making a distinction between two terms that is not supported by the majority of experts using those terms or even by the majority of people using those terms. I think the change is warranted. Is there anyone monitoring this article who would care to comment? AED 06:15, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

I think that the top priority is Wikipedia's consistency. The Iris article defines the terms the other way around, which can be rather confusing for any user relying heavily on Wikipedia. PaF 03:18, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Per the above discussion, I have integrated all of the information in this article into Heterochromia and will redirect it shortly. AED 21:58, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Examples

OMG I can't believe you guys missed Delirium from the Sandman! I added it in. ~ Rosalie.

Does Kate Bosworth not have Heterochromia iridis since one of her eyes is blue and the other is blue with a brown splotch?

What about Urumi Kanzaki from Great Teacher Onizuka? Doesn't she have one blue eye and one brown eye? Also, please reference this article in her section in the GTO article. --Geopgeop 13:52, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

I say remove the fictional characters section altogether. It is utterly pointless, and it just gives the anime-otaku-crowd the opportunity to clog up an, otherwise informative, article with crap. N^O^el 06:47, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Noel, I see your point but it does add more to the article; not all of the fictional characters are from anime (e.g. President Logan from 24). I actually think that a picture of one of these characters might not be a bad idea. However, if the list extends to a length longer then the actual article, we should start removing some.--Jonthecheet 06:43, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

The examples section is longer than the article, and 90% of it is pretty obscure. I think it needs some pruning.Oreo man 15:37, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Does Tom Fulp count? He's an internet celebrity, if not a real celebrity, and in his biography posted to his site (newgrounds.com) claims he was born with a brown eye and a blue eye, but that the blue eye has darkened until it's just a lighter brown.

I'm not sure the citation to Lovecraft's The Lurking Fear is a quote, because my edition of that story (Penguin Modern Classics pg 73 ISBN: 0141187891) has it as "In appearance all were marked by a peculiar inherited dissimilarity of eyes; one generally being blue and the other brown."—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.185.162.167 (talk • contribs) 03:58, 21 June 2006 (UTC).

The list of fictional characters in the article is way too long considering the length of the article and most of the fictional characters are not especially notable. However, rather than pruning the list, I think a better solution is just to split it off into a separate article: List of fictional characters with heterochromia. --Mathew5000 02:44, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Associated with human chimerism?

I always thought that tetragametic chimerism was a major cause of heterochromia. Should that be mentioned in the article? See for example http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=26. --Mathew5000 12:42, 25 July 2006 (UTC)