Iododerma of the conjunctiva and skin.

A 60-year-old white woman developed lesions of the conjunctiva and skin consistent with iododerma. Excision and examination of one of the skin lesions and the conjunctival lesion disclosed pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia associated with acute and chronic inflammation. The remaining lesions disappeared with cessation of iodide. We review the clinical and histopathologic features of the halodermas and discuss the ocular manifestations of iodide hypersensitivity. Recognition may require exceedingly careful testing, but such care is necessary because fatal cases of iododerma have occurred.

Retinal fluorograms using oral fluorescein.

Sodium fluorescein may be safely administered orally. The resulting angiograms serve to document the presence or absence of dye leakage in the same manner as venous injection. The oral route of administration is of particular benefit for use in children, patients with inaccessible veins, and patients participating in studies of late retinal vascular leakage, such as postoperative cystoid macular edema. Serum concentrations of the dye plateau between thirty minutes and one hour, at levels approximating those obtained by intravenous injection.

Trabecular and retrocorneal proliferation of melanocytes and secondary glaucoma.

A 59-year-old woman with no evidence of glaucoma developed secondary open-angle glaucoma after an intracapsular cataract extraction complicated by vitreous and iris incarceration. Histopathologic and scanning and electron microscopic studies of the enucleated eye 22 years later revealed extensive proliferation of iris melanocytes across the trabecular meshwork and posterior surface of the cornea. Proliferation of iris stromal melanocytes over the trabecular meshwork may have caused secondary open-angle glaucoma.

Laser scotometry in drusen and pits of the optic nerve head.

Laser scotometry is an accurate means of detecting dense blind spots. A small low-energy spot is guided across the fundus from nonseeing to seeing areas. Patient responses are recorded on fundus photographys, allowing direct correlation with fundus pathology. Accuracy to less than 1 degree is feasible. All typical optic nerve drusen tested with this technique had field defects. In cases of optic nerve pits, dense scotomas correlated with the shape of visible nerve fiber defects rather than with the shape of serous retinal detachments.

Correlation of clinicopathologic findings in a patient. Congenital night blindness, branch retinal vein occlusion, cilioretinal artery, drusen of the optic nerve head, and intraretinal pigmented lesion.

The ocular clinicopathologic features of this unique patient were congenital stationary night blindness, drusen of the optic nerve head, cilioretinal artery, intraretinal pigmented lesion, and branch retinal vein occlusion. Photocoagulation therapy led to total disappearance of the neovascular tissue, clinically and histopathologically. Histopathologic examination showed an occluded branch vein associated with a sclerotic retinal arteriole. Peripheral to the site of venous occlusion, inner ischemic retinal atrophy was present. The normal complement of rod and cone photoreceptors supports the view that the night blindness in this case was an abnormality in the neural transmission and not on a morphological basis. The pigmented intraretinal lesion proved to be a localized area of retinal and choroidal neovascularization with anastomosis and secondary retinal pigment epithelial hyperplasia. This lesion was identical to Fuchs' dot of myopia but out patient was hyperopic.

Whiplash maculopathy.

Maculopathy in three patients, caused by whiphash injury demonstrated three features that are characteristic of this subtle disturbance of the macula: a history of flexion-extension, head and neck trauma; a history of immediate mild reduction of central visual acuity in one or both eyes; and grayish swelling of the foveal zone accompanied by a small (50 to 100-mu) pit or depression in the fovea. In patients with this disturbance, the retinal opacification and the visual disturbance are transient, but the tiny depression in the retina with its whitish border is permanent.

Recurrence of macular corneal dystrophy after lamellar keratoplasty.

A 20-year-old man required bilateral lamellar keratoplasties for macular corneal dystrophy. Histochemical proof of macular corneal dystrophy was demonstrated in both of the excised lamellar corneal buttons. Eleven years later, the patient underwent a penetrating kiratoplasty in his left eye. Light microscopic, histochemical, and electron microscopic study of the excised button disclosed characteristic features of macular corneal dystrophy in the donor cornea. Recurrence of macular corneal dystrophy in a corneal graft appeared to be the result of replacement of the donor keratocytes by genetically defective host cells.