Talk:Heterochromia

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[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)
Regarding vision: I have heterochromia (bluish-gray and greenish-gray), and, according to my eye care professional, "the vision of a hawk". So, no, it does not affect vision, as far as I can tell. 24.124.88.11 (talk) 15:12, 21 April 2008 (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)

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)

I could provide a picture of a dog with this condition, if anyone feels it necessary. There are enough images to provide a clear representation of the condition, but I could get another if it's needed. Jessealot 04:06, 25 April 2007 (UTC)Jessealot

[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)

Being that there are only "about 30-40 human cases" of chimerism known in scientific literature, I doubt one could say it is a "major" cause of heterochromia. I think the dominant autosome associated with it would be its 'major' cause. Nagelfar 11:07, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How rare is this?

What's the chance of a person having differently colored eyes? Sagittarian Milky Way 21:17, 24 April 2007 (UTC)


I'm not too sure, actually. I know it's quite rare. I know two people with heterochromia. One has a blue eye and a half brown/half blue eye and the other has a green eye and a brown eye. It would be nice to be given stats. Anyone have any? RiotMonday 21:21, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I can't find anything except that it's rare. Something interesting I found was that it only "affects" less than 200000 Americans in the U.S., according to wrongdiagnosis.com. I think it's all very interesting, actually. As a person with one amber eye with a gray splotch and and a brown/green/blue/gray eye, it's very cool to find things like this out... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.139.186.126 (talk) 05:06, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if this demonstrates the chances of inheriting it, but I have central heterochromia in both eyes. My eye color is naturally an olive-green and I have a vivid ring of ambery orange around both pupils. Had it since I was a small child. My maternal grandfather had heterochromia as well. One of his eyes was blue, the other green, which obviously means my mother was a carrier of the gene, but it skipped her and went to me. My half-brother has brown eyes, and both of his children do as well. --Skogul (talk) 13:55, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

"Central Heterochromia is the rarest form of Heterochromia"

That statement is nonsense. My mother has Central Heterochromia (brown, olive-green) and my father doesn't (teal), I do have my mothers eyes and so does my older sister, my younger sister has CHC but partially on my father's color (teal, hazel) while only my oldest brother has uniform color (brown), by Mendellian statistics this indicates that it propably is a dominant trait. Many people in my family have this trait and and quite a few non related to me pleople that I know have it (and I am not quite the social type). As about people with different eye color to each eye I've yet to meet someone.
I acknowledge that. I have got central heterochromia myself, and I know a lot of people who have it too. Besides that, there are only two people known by me with the different heterochromia in either of their eyes... - 138.232.231.243 (talk) 17:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

It's rare, but not that rare. My old primary school teacher used to have this. It seems to be a genetic trait as well.Cb43569 (talk) 10:21, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] David Bowie

david bowie does not have heterochromia!! his pupil is left wide open due to an accident leaving him with almost no iris showing but both of his eyes are blue.

I thought it was a fist-fight in his childhood. Anyway, it might be a good idea if the article mentioned this, because tons of readers would otherwise think, "Ah, this is what David Bowie has!"
--63.25.225.9 (talk) 00:10, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Description of Image:Heterochromia iridis 01.jpg

The image caption lists the eye color as hazel, but I would have considered it green since the brown in the eye is due to the heterochromia. Can this be changed? Krumhorns 09:45, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merging Central heterochromia and Heterochromia

The merger of Central Heterochromia and Heterochromia seems logical considering the former is highly relevant to the latter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnnie1o1 (talk • contribs)

And since both articles are fairly short, and in large part redundant (even within themselves), and a variety of other reasons. There's going to need to be some major editting to do it, though, as I've just noticed Central is in large part a copyright violation. I wish I had more time, I'd take care of it myself, but I don't, so someone else is going to have to step up to the plate and actually do it. -Bbik★ 11:57, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
  • I merged the articles, it might need a little clean up to remove redundant content. Iepeulas (talk) 20:39, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Changing Iris Color on Same Eye?

Both of my cat's eyes change from blue to red at the same time (as instinct, I suppose). Does this fall under heterochromia? Or something else? I doubt it does but if it does then we should add it to the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.104.162.2 (talk) 23:17, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

I doubt it. It's normal for eyes to change color in different lighting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.139.186.126 (talk) 03:49, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Central Heterchromia

I removed the following paragraph from the central heterochromia section because it was copy/pasted almost directly from here: http://cnri.edu/Iridology_FAQ/Iris_Color_&_Iris_Pigmentation.htm

In Central Heterochromia both eyes feature a central ring, usually brown/orange/yellow, and a true colored outer ring, The highly pigmented area that appears around the pupil and spreads outwards towards the edge of the iris may not be relevant to iris analysis unless it spills over the collarette. Conditions of gastric sub-acidity and hypochlorhydria may also be indicated. A common sign found in the biliary constitution.

If someone wants to rewrite it and add it back, they should really mention that this information is controversial, as it comes from Iridology. Alessandriana (talk) 18:41, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

This paragraph,

"The potential to acquire central heterochromia may be inherited genetically, though Central Heterochromia in itself is the condition where drug and toxic settlements in the body make the iris colour appear different from its basic predominant colour. These toxic signs that show in the iris indicate the amounts of the toxins the system has failed to eliminate."

is based on iridology, which is totally rejected by the modern medical field. I think we really need to remove it. Berserk798 (talk) 16:37, 7 June 2008 (UTC)