Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the demographics and clinical features of patients with punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC).
Methods: :
A survey was designed and posted on the website of the PIC Society, and members of the Society were invited to participate. As of November 15, 2005, 47 patients with PIC previously diagnosed and confirmed by uveitis specialists, completed the survey. Demographics, presenting symptoms, disease course, treatment regimens with subjective and objective assessments of response, and ocular complications were assessed.
Results: :
Of the 47 participants, 87.5 % were women, 98% Caucasian, and 87.5% were myopic. The mean age of the participants was 29 years (range 18 to 44 years). Reported presenting symptoms of PIC included: blind spots (87%), blurred vision (85%), flashes of light (72%), floaters (68%), light hypersensitivity (68%), wavy lines (63%), loss of peripheral vision (30%). Thirty–one percent of participants reported recurrent symptoms before treatment; 87% of these patients had between 1 to 4 episodes per year, lasting from 1 to 4 weeks per episode. The majority of patients (94%) had received treatment, most commonly systemic corticosteroids (45%) and intraocular steroids (20%). Eleven percent of patients reported being treated with at least one immunomodulatory drug during the course of their disease. At the time of the survey, 74% of participants thought their condition was stable or was improving on treatment, and 84% reported that their ophthalmologists indicated that their condition was either stable or improving on treatment. Seventy percent of surveyed patients had been diagnosed with choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and 60% with subretinal fibrosis (SRF) in at least one eye. In 75% of patients, the onset of either or both of these complications occurred less than one year after the diagnosis of PIC.
Conclusions: :
In this largest survey to date of 47 patients with PIC, the majority of respondents were young Caucasian myopic women, who experienced blind spots and blurred vision as initial symptoms. Development of ocular complications (CNV and SRF) occurred in the majority of patients within the first year of diagnosis. Corticosteroids and immunomodulatory drugs commonly were employed to treat PIC.
Keywords: inflammation • chorioretinitis • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: natural history