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Abbati G, Fazi C, Fortunato P, Trapani S. Central retinal artery occlusion in a young child affected by COVID-19: a first case report. BMC Pediatr 2023; 23:462. [PMID: 37704960 PMCID: PMC10500751 DOI: 10.1186/s12887-023-04276-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 08/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is an ophthalmic emergency, and its etiology is generally ascribed to vessel occlusion by a thrombus or embolus, eventually due to a hypercoagulable state. CRAO occurrence is described even in the pediatric population, but its incidence is very rare. SARS-CoV-2 infection has a multitude of presentations, and almost any organ may be involved including the ocular district. Cases of CRAO in patients affected by COVID-19 are reported in the literature in the adult population, but not in the pediatric one. CASE PRESENTATION We describe the case of a six-year-old otherwise healthy girl, who presented a sudden and complete bilateral vision loss after a one-day fever. All the clinical, ophthalmological, laboratory and instrumental investigations led to the diagnosis of a right CRAO and the suspicion of a contralateral posterior optic nerve affection. These manifestations could not be ascribed to any etiological condition apart from the documented ongoing mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. Treatment with anticoagulants and steroids was tried but the visual outcome was poor during the one-month hospitalization and at the last follow-up. CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of CRAO in the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the pediatric age. In our review of the literature, we found few cases of CRAO in adults with COVID-19; we highlighted differences in anamnestic, clinical, and interventional aspects and therefore we tried to summarize the state of the art on this topic to facilitate further studies. Even if rare, the prognosis of CRAO is poor and the thrombolytic treatment could be effective only if rapidly administered, so the disease suspicion should be high in a patient with sudden vision loss, also in pediatric age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Abbati
- Pediatric and Neonatology Unit, Santo Stefano Hospital, Prato, Italy.
| | - Camilla Fazi
- Pediatric Unit, Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS, Florence, Italy
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Pina Fortunato
- Pediatric Ophthalmology Unit, Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS, Florence, Italy
| | - Sandra Trapani
- Pediatric Unit, Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS, Florence, Italy
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
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Carletti P, Shah A, Bair C, Curran C, Mai A, Patel R, Moorthy R, Villate N, Davis JL, Vitale AT, Shakoor A, Hassman L. The spectrum of COVID-19-associated chorioretinal vasculopathy. Am J Ophthalmol Case Rep 2023; 31:101857. [PMID: 37255549 PMCID: PMC10193817 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajoc.2023.101857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Revised: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose Although conjunctivitis represents the most common ocular manifestation of COVID-19 infection, sight-threatening retinal involvement has been reported. Herein, we report and characterize with multimodal retinal imaging 5 cases of acute vision loss secondary to presumed chorioretinal vasculopathy temporally associated with COVID-19 infection with varying severity, visual morbidity, and treatment response, and review the available literature on the association between COVID-19 infection and retinal microvascular changes. Design Observational case series and literature review. Methods Multicenter case series of 5 patients who presented to academic centers and private offices with acute vision loss temporally associated with COVID-19 infection. A review of the literature was conducted using online databases. Results 10 eyes of 5 patients, 3 men and 2 women, with a mean age of 30.8 years (median 33, range 16-44) were described. All patients had a recently preceding episode of COVID-19, with symptomatology ranging from mild infection to life-threatening encephalopathy. Treatment for their retinal disease included topical, oral, intravitreal, and intravenous steroids, steroid-sparing immunosuppression, retinal photocoagulation, antivirals, and antiplatelet and anticoagulant agents. Treatment response and visual recovery ranged from complete recovery of baseline acuity to permanent vision loss and need for chronic immunosuppression. Conclusions and Importance Clinicians should be mindful of the potential for vision-threatening retinal involvement after COVID-19 infection. If found, treatment with both anti-inflammatory therapy and anticoagulation should be considered, in addition to close monitoring, as some patients with this spectrum of disease may require chronic immune suppression and/or anti-VEGF therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Piero Carletti
- Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA
| | - Aaditya Shah
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Christopher Bair
- John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | | | - Anthony Mai
- John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Rachel Patel
- John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Ramana Moorthy
- Associated Vitreoretinal and Uveitis Consultants, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Natalia Villate
- Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
- Fort Lauderdale Eye Institute, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
| | - Janet L Davis
- Department of Ophthalmology, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA
| | - Albert T Vitale
- John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Akbar Shakoor
- John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Lynn Hassman
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
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Batu ED, Sener S, Ozen S. COVID-19 associated pediatric vasculitis: A systematic review and detailed analysis of the pathogenesis. Semin Arthritis Rheum 2022; 55:152047. [PMID: 35709649 PMCID: PMC9183245 DOI: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2022.152047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Revised: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Objectives Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, has opened a new era in the practice of pediatric rheumatology since it has been associated with inflammatory complications such as vasculitis and arthritis. In this review, we aimed to present a detailed analysis of COVID-19 associated pediatric vasculitis. Methods A systematic review of the English literature was performed through Pubmed/MEDLINE and Scopus up to January 1st, 2022. Articles including data about the patients with 1) onset of vasculitis <18 years of age, 2) evidence of SARS-CoV-2 exposure, 3) evidence of vasculitis diagnosis (imaging, histopathologic evidences or fulfilling the specific diagnostic/classification criteria) were included in the final analysis. Patients with Kawasaki disease-like vasculitis associated with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) were excluded. Results A total of 25 articles describing 36 patients with COVID-19 associated pediatric vasculitis (median age 13 years; M/F: 2.3) were included. The most frequent phenotype was IgA vasculitis (n=9) followed by chilblains (n=7) and ANCA associated vasculitis (AAV) (n=5). Skin (58.3%) and renal (30.5%) involvements were the most common manifestations of vasculitis. The majority of patients received corticosteroids (40%), while rituximab (14.2%) and cyclophosphamide (11.4%) were the most frequently used immunosuppressive drugs. Remission was achieved in 23 of 28 patients. Five patients (4 with central nervous system vasculitis; 1 with AAV) died. Conclusion Although COVID-19 associated pediatric vasculitis is very rare, awareness of this rare entity is important to secure earlier diagnosis and treatment. The clinical features of COVID-19 associated pediatric vasculitis subtypes look similar to those in pediatric vasculitis not associated with COVID-19. Whether COVID-19 is the reason of the vasculitis or only the trigger remains unknown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ezgi Deniz Batu
- Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Ankara, Turkey.
| | - Seher Sener
- Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Seza Ozen
- Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Ankara, Turkey
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Tortuosity Index Calculations in Retinal Images: Some Criticalities Arising from Commonly Used Approaches. INFORMATION 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/info12110466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing body of research in retinal imaging is recently considering vascular tortuosity measures or indexes, with definitions and methods mostly derived from cardiovascular research. However, retinal microvasculature has its own peculiarities that must be considered in order to produce reliable measurements. This study analyzed and compared various derived metrics (e.g., TI, TI_avg, TI*CV) across four existing computational workflows. Specifically, the implementation of the models on two critical OCT images highlighted main pitfalls of the methods, which may fail in reliably differentiating a highly tortuous image from a normal one. A tentative, encouraging approach to mitigate the issue on the same OCT exemplificative images is described in the paper, based on the suggested index TI*CV.
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