Association of chronic central serous chorioretinopathy with subclinical Cushing's syndrome

Abstract

Purpose: To report the clinical course of a patient with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) secondary to subclinical hypercortisolism before and after adrenalectomy.

Observations: A 50-year-old female patient with multifocal, chronic CSCR was found to have an adrenal incidentaloma and was diagnosed with subclinical hypercortisolism. Patient elected to undergo minimally-invasive adrenalectomy and presented at 3 months after surgery without subretinal fluid.

Conclusions and importance: Subclinical Cushing's Syndrome (SCS) may present an underrecognized risk factor for developing chronic CSCR. Further investigation is needed to determine the threshold of visual comorbidity that may influence surgical management.

Keywords: Adrenalectomy; Central serous chorioretinopathy; Hypercortisolism; Retina; Subclinical Cushing's syndrome; Surgical intervention.

Fig. 1

Multimodal imaging of bilateral multifocal central serous chorioretinopathy. Fundus photographs reveal multifocal subretinal fluid and pigmentary changes (Fig. 1A). Optical coherence tomography demonstrates subretinal fluid and outer retinal atrophy (Fig. 1B). Areas of hyperautofluorescence highlight the fundoscopic findings of subretinal fluid (Fig. 1C). Fluorescein angiography showing multiple areas of expansile dot leakage (Fig. 1D).

Fig. 2

Optical coherence tomography imaging at presentation and at last follow-up 3 months after adrenalectomy. There is a significant improvement in subretinal fluid in both eyes, though outer retinal irregularity remains.