Objective  To observe the multimodal imaging characteristics of the eyes in patients with presumed tuberculous retinal vasculitis. Methods  A retrospective case series study. A total of 15 patients (22 eyes) diagnosed with presumed tuberculous retinal vasculitis and receiving anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) effectively in Department of Ophthalmology, Subei People's Hospital Affiliated to Yangzhou University from January 2018 to April 2021 were included. Among them, there were 5 males and 10 females. Seven had bilateral involvement and 8 had unilateral involvement. The age was 49.3±11.1 years old. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), fundus colour photography, wide-angle fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA), and optical coherence tomography (OCT) were performed in all patients. Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) was performed in 7 eyes. The BCVA examination was performed with the international standard visual acuity chart, which was converted into the logarithm of minimal angel resolution vision (logMAR). Systemic tuberculosis-related examinations included chest CT, serum T-spot, purified protein derivative and other tuberculosis-related tests. All patients were treated with systemic anti-tuberculosis therapy. The follow-up time was ＞12 months. The multimodal imaging characteristics for affected eyes. Nonparametric test was used to compare BCVA before and after treatment. Results The retinal vessels of all the affected eyes were tortuously dilated, including 3 eyes with vascular white scabbard, 5 eyes with scattered bleeding point at the retina inculding 3 eyes walking along the vessels. The lesions were mainly distributed in the middle and periphery of the retina, and some of them involved the posterior pole; 12 eyes (54.5%, 12/22) with simple retinal vasculitis and 10 eyes (45.5%, 10/22) with retinal vasculitis complicated with choroiditis. Tuberculous retinal vasculitis showed different degrees of retinal vascular leakage on FFA, mainly retinal vein and capillary leakage, not involving arteries; 16 eyes (72.7%, 16/22) of retinal vasculitis showed peripheral occlusive retinal vasculitis and 4 eyes (18.2%, 4/22) were associated with retinal neovascularization. In 10 eyes with choroiditis, there were multiple focal choroiditis lesions of different sizes under the retina. Of the 7 eyes examined by ICGA, the choroidal inflammatory lesions showed hypofluorescent dark dots (HDD) in 5 eyes (71.4%,5/7), showing HDDs of different sizes, most of which were distributed in the posterior pole and middle periphery. In 10 eyes with retinal vasculitis complicated with choroiditis after ATT, the accumulation of hyper-reflective substances above and below the retinal pigment epithelium layer of the retina was gradually absorbed, but not completely disappeared, and most of the disorders of retinal structure could not be recovered. The average logMAR visual acuity was 0.61±0.57 before treatment and 0.36±0.55 after treatment. The BCVA after treatment was significantly higher than that before treatment (Z=－3.102, P＜0.01). Conclusions Peripheral occlusive retinal vasculitis is the most common manifestation of tuberculous retinal vasculitis in FFA, which may be accompanied by focal choroidal inflammatory lesions. Wide-angle FFA and ICGA are more important in the diagnosis of tuberculous retinal vasculitis. OCT can be used for monitoring the changes of inflammation.

Citation： Zhu Jie, Li Zhe, Zhu Jun, Chen Fang. Multimodal imaging characteristics for presumed tuberculous retinal vasculitis. Chinese Journal of Ocular Fundus Diseases, 2022, 38(11): 895-900. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.cn511434-20220614-00362 Copy