Lange's folds: a meaningful ocular artifact

Abstract

Lange's fold is a postmortem artifact seen in enucleated eyes of infants and young humans. We also demonstrate its presence in young monkey eyes obtained at autopsy, but did not find it in the eyes of fetal monkeys removed by cesarean section and immediately preserved by freezing. The artifact is thought to occur in autopsy eyes due to the vitreous base and posterior lens zonules exerting traction upon the periphery of the retina. In the eyes of older humans the peripheral retina is firmly bound down to the subjacent retinal pigment epithelium following the loss of peripheral photoreceptors, and thus, Lange's fold cannot develop. Peripheral cystoid retinal degeneration was also noted in early infancy, became more prevalent with age, and was almost always noted by age 8 years.