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24th Annual Meeting of the German Retina Society

German Retina Society

17.06. - 18.06.2011, Aachen

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Serous pigment epithelial detachment secondary to polymyalgia rheumatica

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  • Claudia Inhetvin-Hutter - Augenärzte am Marienhospital, Aachen
  • W. Hunold - Augenärzte am Marienhospital, Aachen

German Retina Society. 24th Annual Conference of the German Retina Society. Aachen, 17.-18.06.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11rg30

doi: 10.3205/11rg30, urn:nbn:de:0183-11rg307

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/meetings/rg2011/11rg30.shtml

Published: June 15, 2011

© 2011 Inhetvin-Hutter et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Background: The differential diagnosis of a pigment epithelial detachment (PED) is manifold. A PED may be caused by neovascular AMD, central serous chorioretinopathy, inflammatory and neoplastic associated diseases.

Methods: Case report of a 57-year-old women with unilateral PED. Course documentation with infrared, autofluorescence, angiography and spectral-domain OCT (Spectralis, Heidelberg Engineering).

Results: On her first visit she presented with a visual acuity of 20/50. The biomicroscopic fundus examination showed a giant PED with smooth borders. On both eyes were found drusen of the macula and additional folds of the choroidea. The angiography revealed no signs of a neovascular AMD. She had a medical history of polymyalgia rheumatica treated with steroids. Due to the risk of a pigment epithelial tearing (rip) we observed the natural course of the PED under simultaneous tapering of the steroids. The visual acuity improved to 20/25 and the PED fully resolved within the next 5 months.

Conclusion: A serous PED may be caused by different aetiologies. There ist a high-risk of tearing of the retinal pigment epithelium in the spontaneous course as well as under treatment with anti-VEGF or PDT. The feasible treatment option of each individual case is dependent of the aetiology of the PED and has to be discussed with the patient.