1/4. Long-term posterior and anterior segment complications of immune recovery uveitis associated with cytomegalovirus retinitis.PURPOSE: To identify and describe long-term posterior and anterior segment complications of immune recovery uveitis in patients with inactive cytomegalovirus retinitis who are undergoing highly active antiretroviral therapy-mediated recovery of immune function.methods: A prospective cohort study at a university medical center. Twenty-nine eyes of 21 patients with immune recovery uveitis and inactive cytomegalovirus retinitis were followed for 14.5 to 116 weeks (median, 43 weeks) after diagnosis of immune recovery uveitis. RESULTS: Nine eyes of nine patients developed visually important complications involving the posterior segment, anterior segment, or a combination of both. Posterior segment complications included severe proliferative vitreoretinopathy in three eyes and spontaneous vitreous hemorrhage from avulsion of a blood vessel secondary to contraction of the inflamed vitreous in one eye. Proliferative vitreoretinopathy recurred in all cases after surgery, severely compromising the visual outcome. Anterior segment complications included posterior subcapsular cataracts with vision decrease in five eyes and persistent anterior chamber inflammation after cataract extraction, resulting in posterior synechiae and large visually important lens deposits in three eyes.CONCLUSION: Persistent inflammation in immune recovery uveitis may lead to vision-threatening complications, such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy, posterior subcapsular cataracts, and severe postoperative inflammation. Immune recovery uveitis is a chronic inflammatory syndrome that may result in complications months to years after the onset of inflammation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = vessel (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/4. psoriasis and intraocular inflammation.Presented in this series were seven men and three women. Ages when seen, ranged from 32 to 68 years (average 54). psoriasis had begun in childhood in the women and in the late 20's and 30's in the men. arthritis (ankylosing spondylitis) was present in only one. Their ocular inflammations began from ages 26 to 62 (average 41). The onset of the inflammation was acute iritis in four and in indolent iridocylcitis in six. All but one were bilateral and chronic. The vitreous had heavy debris in nine of the ten patients. The retina was normal in only three. Boggy congestion was present in two with cystoid edema. Patches of edema. fluorescein leaking, depigmentation of both maculae, pars plana exudate, and retinal vessel obliteration to grey-white, shaggy cords was present in at least one of the remaining five patients. Systemic corticosteroid therapy has been used in eight of the ten patients described in this report. Doses no higher than 30 mg of prednisone per day were used to initiate reversal of the inflammatory response. In case 10, knowledge of the sensitivity of the process to steroids led to the successful rapid reversal of a recalcitrant iritis with only 20 mg of prednisone as a first dose and 20 mg per day for less than three weeks. maintenance corticosteroid therapy ranged from 40 mg of prednisone every other day in case 9, prednisone 12.5 mg one day and 5 mg the next in case 8, to 8 mg of Aristocort or methylprednisolone acetate (M-edrol) daily in cases 1 and 2. In summary, these patients are older, have an indolent onset bilateral uveitis with dense vitreous debris, retinal abnormalites, and are extremely sensitive to systemic corticosteroids. Many of these patients had undergone the series of clinical evaluations known as a "uveitis survey." Many different systemic abnormalities were found and merited treatment which rarely made a difference in their ocular disease, though two improved after infected teeth were treated. Assuming that these ocular diseases were related to psoriasis, one can then challenge the value of anything found by a "uveitis survey." The author uses information gained from such studies to insure that the patient is in the best possible heatlh and then makes clinical correlations such as presented in this paper. The rarity of this combination of ocular inflammations in patients with psoriasis makes it risky to propose that this is a significant association. Arguments that this is a disease entity began with the clinical similarities: older age, indolent onset, vitreous and retinal involvement, and the extreme sensitivity to systemic corticosteroids. None of these patients had psoriatic arthritis and only one had ankylosing spondylitis. The best explanation for the fact that this disorder has not been emphasized in the past would be an attitude of ophthalmologists and physicians that the eye and skin disease were coincident.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = vessel (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/4. iridocyclitis and an iris mass associated with secondary syphilis.A 34-year-old white man developed iridocyclitis and an iris mass. The iridocyclitis was preceded by a nodular rash which spared the palms and soles. An anterior segment fluorescein angiogram was performed which showed numerous permeable vessels. An ultrasound examination of the mass showed that it extended to the ciliary body. He had both a positive RPRCT and FTA-Abs. A skin biopsy was done which disclosed the nodules to be a rare form of secondary syphilis. The patient was treated with topical steroids and a cycloplegic agent, and later prednisone and intravenous penicillin, with eventual resolution of iris mass, iridocyclitis and skin nodules.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = vessel (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/4. fluorescein iris angiography in nodular sarcoid iritis.The value of fluorescein iris angiography in the diagnosis and follow-up of nodular sarcoid iritis was studied in five patients with nodular iritis and histologically verified generalized sarcoidosis. On the angiograms the sarcoid nodules appeared as hyperfluorescent patches which always exceeded the number of nodules seen by biomicroscopy. Fresh iris nodules were characterized by mild diffuse fluorescence and dilatation and leakage of the adjacent vessels whereas old granulomas were covered by tortuous neovascular vessels which in the active stage of the disease leaked fluorescein profusely. After recovery or between recurrent attacks the amount of leakage decreased or stopped although the neovascular network did not disappear. At recurrences new areas of fluorescence due to fresh nodules were observed in addition to intense leakage from some of the previous lesions. Most of the small nodules were situated in the pupillary part of the iris resulting in dilatation and abnormal permeability of all the peripupillary vessels. The weakness of absence or diffuse leakage from the radial vessels of the iris agrees with the proliferative nature of sarcoid nodular iritis and explains the low-grade symptoms of the patients.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 4keywords = vessel (Clic here for more details about this article) |