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E70.3: Albinism

You have too little dark pigment in your skin, hair or eyes.

In the skin, special cells produce a dark pigment. This pigment is to protect the body from sunlight. If a lot of sunlight gets on your skin, then these skin cells produce more pigment. This makes the skin brown. These melanin-producing skin cells also occur in the scalp. There the cells release the pigments to the hair roots. These pigments determine the color of the hair.

With this condition, melanin-producing cells produce too little, or no, pigment. The melanin-producing cells may also be entirely absent. The illness is caused by genetic changes. The genes hold a complete blueprint of the body's structure. When development beings, this blueprint exists in every single cell in the body. With certain conditions, specific genetic elements are changed. These changes may be inherited from the parents or they may be new. Other family members may also be affected. Depending on the nature of the condition the skin, hair or eyes may be affected.

If there is too little dark pigment in the skin, the skin will look very pale. The skin can then be damaged more easily by sunlight.

If there is too little, or no, dark pigment in the hair, the hair will be blond, silvery or white.

The dark pigment also determines the color of the iris in the eye. The colored iris is located in the center of the eye. There is a black opening in the center of the iris. This is the pupil. The iris also controls how big the pupil is. The less pigment there is in the iris, the paler the eye color will generally be.

The retina can also be affected. The retina is a layer inside the eye. It contains a lot of sensory cells that can perceive light. There are sensory cells for colors and sensory cells for light and dark. The sensory cells pass the information on to the nerve cells in the optic nerve. If there is too little, or no, pigment in the retina, the eyes may be very sensitive to light. You may also be unable to see properly. You may also have a squint or nystagmus. With nystagmus, the eyes move around quickly and uncontrollably.

Depending on the nature of the condition, other problems can also occur.

Additional indicator

On medical documents, the ICD code is often appended by letters that indicate the diagnostic certainty or the affected side of the body.

  • G: Confirmed diagnosis
  • V: Tentative diagnosis
  • Z: Condition after
  • A: Excluded diagnosis
  • L: Left
  • R: Right
  • B: Both sides

Further information

Note

This information is not intended for self-diagnosis and does not replace professional medical advice from a doctor. If you find an ICD code on a personal medical document, please also note the additional indicator used for diagnostic confidence.
Your doctor will assist you with any health-related questions and explain the ICD diagnosis code to you in a direct consultation if necessary.

Source

Provided by the non-profit organization “Was hab’ ich?” gemeinnützige GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).