Hypertensive retinopathy mimicking neuroretinitis in a twelve-year-old girl

Abstract

Bilateral disk swelling and marked peripapillary and macular exudates were found on routine ophthalmologic examination in a 12 1/2-year-old girl. Eleven months later, with persistent findings, her blood pressure was found to be extremely elevated. She had an Ask-Upmark kidney, a rare form of segmental renal hypoplasia. The Ask-Upmark kidney abnormality occurs primarily in young women and is associated with hypertension. The disk edema and retinopathy resolved after the hypertension was controlled. Hypertensive retinopathy can sometimes resemble neuroretinitis.