Visualization of retinal vasculitis in Eales' disease

Abstract

Between 1970 and 1991 the authors examined 466 patients with Eales' disease. The mean age at diagnosis was 30, ranging between 14 and 55 years. The mean follow-up period was 43.5 months. At the initial examination, 356 cases were bilateral and 110 cases were unilateral (822 eyes). Vitreous hemorrhage was present in 257 of the 822 eyes. In the remaining 565 eyes, the major retinal lesions were retinal neovascularization (40.7%), vascular sheathing (20.7%), vascular sheathing and retinal hemorrhages (10.6%), retinitis proliferans (9.4%), disc neovascularization (9.0%), branch vein occlusion (3.2%), tractional retinal detachment (2.4%), central vein occlusion (1.8%), central vascular sheathing (1.1%), obliterated vessels (1.1%). Forty-nine out of the 110 initially unilateral cases eventually developed bilateral involvement after a mean period of 42 months. The percentage of eyes with a vision of 0.1 and better rose from 68.1% in the initial examination to 77.9% in the final examination. Fluorescein angiograms of the affected eyes show dye leakage with retinal staining, microaneurysms, capillary non-perfusion and neovascularization. Fundus changes are characteristic of Eales' disease. Unilateral cases should be closely followed because of the risk of involvement of the other eye. Fluorescein angiography is a requirement for early identification of vascular changes and for proper follow-up in Eales' disease.