Clinical Aspects of 273 Patients with Visual Disability

PURPOSE: To report clinical features of visually disabled people by newly revised legal blindness criteria. METHODS: A prospective evaluation of all blind registrations was conducted at Dongguk University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2000. Detailed ophthalmologic evaluations were performed and the review of the diagnosis was done in order to find out the cause of the visual disability. RESULTS: There were 273 patients (343 eyes) for newly registered blindness. Of these, 190 (69.6%, 190/273) were men and mean age was 53.8+/-15.48. The sixth degree visual disability was most common (74.0%, 202/273) according to the newly revised legal blindness criteria, and most common cause of blindness was trauma (38.2%, 131/343). Government office advised 122 patients (44.7%, 122/273) to register legal blindness . CONCLUSION: Further nationwide epidemiological survey for legal visual disability is required by standardized classification and criteria.

Clinical and Angiographic Findings in Patients with Toxoplasmic Retinochroiditis

No Abstract Available.

Unilateral Idiopathic Maculopathy

This is a report of five patients who experienced slow, severe, unilateral central vision loss without a history of any other systemic illness. All patients were female and the age of the patients ranged from 21 to 33 years, with a mean age of 27 years. The follow-up period was 1 to 3 years. Each patient had a small yellowish spot in the fovea, which was associated with subretinal or retinal hemorrhage. No inflammatory cells were found in the vitreous or anterior chamber. Most patients presented with a visual acuity of 0.3 to 0.6. In one patient, the presenting visual acuity was 1. 0. Each patient described a central scotoma which was confirmed by Amsler`s grid test. The presenting manifestations of the disorder did not progress or recur in any of these patients during the period of follow-up. Visual acuity recovered to the visual acuity of the initial visit in three of five patients. The fluorescein angiogram revealed the early hyperfluorescence in the spot of the fovea which remained the same through the late phase. Three of five patients demonstrated a neurosensory detachment of the macula usually with irregular margins. The spot of the fovea showed hypofluorescence on the indocyanine green angiography. No hyperfluorescence in the center of the macula was found on the ICG-A. To the best of our knowledge, this unique clinical entity does not seem to be consistent with any previously described maculopathies in its clinical, angiographic features, and its natural course.