Faculty Bibliography

Ketorolac tromethamine 0.5% ophthalmic solution treatment was compared to placebo treatment in 120 patients with chronic aphakic or pseudophakic cystoid macular edema (six-month or more duration of distance visual acuity of 20/40 or less and angiographic evidence of cystoid changes) during a four- to five-month double-masked, multicenter study in which patients were randomly assigned. A statistically significant improvement in distance visual acuity (two lines or more) was observed in the ketorolac-treated group as compared to the placebo-treated group after 30 days (P = .038), 60 days (P = .017), and 90 days (P = .008) of treatment. This improvement in visual acuity remained statistically significant one month after cessation of treatment (P = .001). Nine ketorolac-treated patients and two placebo-treated patients demonstrated a decrease in visual acuity one month after treatment was discontinued. Seven of the nine ketorolac-treated patients experienced an improvement in visual acuity after retreatment as compared to none of the placebo-treated patients. This study offers evidence for a more optimistic outlook in the medical treatment of chronic aphakic and pseudophakic cystoid macular edema

A 24-year-old Caucasian female presented with acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy (APMPPE) and associated infiltration round some of the larger choroidal blood vessels. This infiltration dissipated as the patient's clinical condition improved and did not induce any permanent alteration of the overlying retinal pigment epithelium. We suggest that the infiltration round the choroidal vessels was due to a choroidal vasculitis. The finding of choroidal inflammation in this case lends support to the hypothesis that choroidal vasculitis is an underlying pathological process in APMPPE

Although it has been reported that patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis have serologic evidence of a chronic or persistent Epstein-Barr virus infection, our patients did not seem to have other stigmata of Epstein-Barr virus infection. To reappraise the serologic evidence of chronic Epstein-Barr virus infection, the Epstein-Barr antibody levels in 11 patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis and 11 sex- and age-matched control patients were measured. Neither the antiviral capsid antigen IgG (P = .15) nor the antinuclear antigen (P = .2) antibody titers of the patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis were significantly different than those of the control patients. Neither the patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis nor the control patients had increased antiviral capsid antigen IgM titers. One patient with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis and three control patients had positive anti-early antigen antibody titers (P = .59). The results of this study do not support the hypothesis that patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis have serologic evidence of chronic or persistent Epstein-Barr virus infection as a characteristic finding

This is a report of nine patients who experienced sudden, severe, unilateral central vision loss following a flulike illness. Each patient had an exudative detachment of the macula. All patients experienced a spontaneous resolution of the acute macular manifestations with near-complete recovery of vision. A characteristic 'bull's-eye' appearance in the macula persisted. The acute manifestations of the disorder did not recur in any of the patients during the period of follow-up. The constellation of findings was suggestive of an inflammatory disease of the retinal pigment epithelium, but a specific causative agent could not be identified. The acute clinical and angiographic features, the natural course, and the residual pigment epithelial derangement were not consistent with any previously described disorder

The evaluation of the posterior vitreoretinal interface is important in the study of the natural course and preoperative evaluation of numerous disorders of the retina. The exact status of the posterior vitreous cannot always be reliably determined by ophthalmoscopic examination. The diagnostic value of kinetic contact ultrasonography was investigated to evaluate the status of the posterior vitreous in 70 eyes with clear ocular media. Contact B-scan ultrasound provided an extremely accurate method for evaluating the posterior vitreoretinal interface in 69 of the 70 eyes in this study, when compared with all conventional clinical means of examination including slit-lamp biomicroscopy with the Goldmann contact lens and fundus photography with the El Bayadi-Kajiura lens. Contact B-scan ultrasonography is an important diagnostic adjunct in determining the status of the vitreoretinal interface

Ten patients, all younger than 50 years of age, had a temporal cilioretinal artery occlusion associated with a nonischemic central retinal vein occlusion. On fluorescein angiography, the cilioretinal artery eventually filled in all but one eye. The cilioretinal artery showed pulsations on fluorescein angiography in five eyes. The central retinal vein occlusion eventually resolved and the fundus assumed a normal appearance in all nine of the followed cases. Eight of nine eyes that underwent follow-up examination had final visual acuity of 20/30 or better. The occlusion of the central retinal vein produces an elevation of intraluminal capillary pressure because the central retinal artery continues to pump blood into the retina. Because the perfusion pressure of the cilioretinal artery is lower than the central retinal artery, it becomes relatively occluded. The prognosis for these patients is generally good unless the entire parafoveal capillary net is affected by the cilioretinal artery that is occluded

The clinical differentiation between multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis (MCP) and the presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (POHS) can be difficult. Each condition is associated with peripapillary atrophy, chorioretinal spots, and subretinal neovascularization. Peripheral chorioretinal streaks have been described as the 'fourth sign' of POHS. A consecutive series of patients with MCP were examined to determine the prevalence of peripheral chorioretinal streaks. Examination of 47 involved eyes in 25 patients revealed three eyes with streaks near the equator. These findings suggest that the presence of peripheral linear streaks cannot be used to differentiate the POHS from MCP

The prevalence of the HLA-B7 and HLA-DR2 specificities in 17 unrelated patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis, 11 with and six without subretinal neovascularisation, was evaluated and compared with those of two different groups. The first group was 17 patients with subretinal neovascularisation associated with presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome, and the second was a group of 105 eye patients with no retinal disease. HLA-DR2 was not found in any patient with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis, but it was found in 13 patients with presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (p = 6.72 x 10(-5), comparison of the groups with subretinal neovascularisation). The lack of HLA-DR2 was also significant in comparison with the control group of eye patients (p = 0.041). This study suggests that patients with multifocal choroiditis and panuveitis and presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome have differing genetic predispositions, though the fundus pictures in these entities have many similarities