Resolution of bilateral cystoid macular edema and subfoveal serous retinal detachments after treatment with bortezomib in a patient with "smoldering" multiple myeloma

Bilateral Exudative Retinal Detachments and Panuveitis in a Patient with Multiple Myeloma

PURPOSE

To report a case of bilateral exudative retinal detachments and panuveitis in a patient with multiple myeloma (MM).

CASE REPORT

A 54-year-old patient with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy was referred with blurred vision and scotomas in both eyes (OU). Three months prior to the onset of ocular symptoms, he was diagnosed with systemic MM and was receiving chemotherapy. Clinical examination revealed best-corrected visual acuities of 20/80 OU, rare anterior chamber cell, 2+ vitreous cell, diffuse intraretinal hemorrhages, and exudative retinal detachments (RD). Optical coherence tomography of the macula showed central subretinal fluid with cystic intraretinal fluid OU. The findings were consistent with panuveitis and exudative RD in the setting of MM. He reported symptomatic improvement after plasmapheresis and oral prednisone initiation.

CONCLUSION

Extensive, bilateral exudative RD and panuveitis are rare but potentially sight-threatening findings in patients with MM.

Ocular involvement in TEMPI syndrome

Purpose

We report the first case of ocular involvement in TEMPI syndrome, a rare disease characterized by telangiectasias, elevated erythropoietin with erythrocytosis, monoclonal gammopathy, perinephric fluid collections, and intra-pulmonary shunting.

Observations

A 64-year-old Caucasian man with history of TEMPI syndrome presented with subacute bilateral painless vision loss. Ocular examination showed chronic retinal ischemia with microvascular damage, which was likely associated with the chronic systemic hypoxemia, and spontaneous wax and wane of cystoid macular edema, presumedly related to the systemic bortezomib treatment.

Conclusions and importance

Our case demonstrates that pathologic retinal vascular changes could be seen in association with TEMPI syndrome and suggests that a comprehensive ophthalmological examination may be beneficial for these patients.

Retinopathy secondary to multiple myeloma treated with bevacizumab

The case is presented on an 80-year-old woman with IgA multiple myeloma (MM), who developed retinal changes similar to mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, with micro-aneurysms and intraretinal fluid. The patient was treated with systemic chemotherapy for MM, and with bevacizumab intravitreal injections, with control of her ocular disorder for 22 months. Anti-angiogenic therapy can be useful in the control of retinopathy secondary to MM, as long as the systemic disease has been controlled.

Multiple myeloma masquerading as diabetic macular oedema

A 58-year-old man, a known diabetic and hypertensive for 5 years was presented to us with a drop in reading vision in both eyes of 2 months duration. His best-corrected visual acuity was 6/24, N36 in both eyes. Fundus findings revealed moderate non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy with bilateral diffuse macular oedema. When conventional therapy with intravitreal ranibizumab did not alter the clinical picture, we looked into the differential diagnosis of bilateral persistent macular detachments and investigated further. Haematological tests revealed severe anaemia with pancytopenia, which prompted further investigations including a bone marrow biopsy confirming a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. Chemotherapy gradually caused resolution of the macular detachments at 8 months follow-up. This report illustrates that a high index of suspicion regarding systemic condition is required in certain cases presenting as diabetic macular oedema, but not responding to the conventional treatment.

Unusual Manifestations of Monoclonal Gammopathy: I. Ocular Disease

Essential monoclonal gammopathy is usually an asymptomatic condition, the characteristics of which have been defined over approximately 70 years of study. It has a known population-attributable risk of undergoing clonal evolution to a progressive, symptomatic B-cell neoplasm. In a very small fraction of patients, the monoclonal immunoglobulin has biophysical characteristics that can lead to tissue deposition syndrome (e.g. Fanconi renal syndrome) or, by chance, have characteristics of an autoantibody that may inactivate critical proteins (e.g. acquired von Willebrand disease). In this report, we describe the very uncommon forms of ocular injury that may accompany essential monoclonal gammopathy, which include crystalline keratopathy, crystal-storing histiocytosis, hypercupremic keratopathy, and maculopathy. The first three syndromes result from uncommon physicochemical alterations of the monoclonal immunoglobulin that favor crystallization or exaggerated copper binding. The last-mentioned syndrome is of uncertain pathogenesis. These syndromes may result in decreased visual acuity. These ocular findings may lead, also, to the diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathy.