Bilateral acute retinal necrosis--a case report.

A 42 year old man presented with acute bilateral uveitis and necrotizing retinitis. Systemic investigations including test for AIDS and CMV retinitis were negative. Despite oral Acyclovir, both eyes progressed rapidly to retinal detachment with loss of vision. Early recognition is necessary to diagnose the bilateral acute retinal necrosis syndrome and initiate treatment. Bilateral acute retinal necrosis (BARN) is a term first coined by Young and Bird in 1978 although the syndrome had been originally described by Urayama et al as an unilateral condition. This syndrome is characterized by the triad of acute confluent peripheral necrotizing retinitis, moderate to severe vasculitis and vitritis in an otherwise healthy individual. Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment occurs within two to three months of the onset of the disease and the second eye is involved in 36% of patients, usually within 6 weeks. We herein report a patient who presented with simultaneous BARN leading to retinal detachment in a matter of days. Also, to our knowledge this is the first report of this condition in India.

Cluster headache or narrow angle glaucoma?

A 47 year old man with episodes of attacks of pain, redness and mild blurring of vision was investigated for narrow angle glaucoma in view of shallow anterior chambers and a cupped optic disc. The history was reviewed following a spontaneous attack in hospital, which had features other than acute glaucoma. A diagnosis of cluster headache was made on the basis of tests. Cluster headache has been defined as unilateral intense pain, involving the eye and head on one side, usually associated with flushing, nasal congestion and lacrimation; the attacks recurring one or more times daily and lasting 20 - 120 minutes. Such attacks commonly continue for weeks or months and are separated by an asymptomatic period of months to years. This episodic nature, together with unilaterality and tendency to occur at night, closely mimics narrow angle glaucoma. Further, if patients have shallow anterior chambers and disc cupping, the differentiation becomes more difficult yet critical. Resource to provocative tests is often the only answer as the following case report demonstrates.