Ocular manifestations of various systemic disorders

Diode laser photoablation of the retinal periphery is an effective treatment for zone 1 or 2 threshold retinopathy of prematurity. Patients with small cell carcinoma of the lung and cancer-associated retinopathy have immunoreactivity with the 23-kD retinal cancer-associated antigen and a similar antigen is secreted by in vitro propagated cultures of small cell carcinoma of the lung. This cancer-associated autoimmune retinopathy is characterized by rapid visual loss, night blindness, color loss, and reduced electroretinograms. Angioid streaks start as narrow, short discontinuous hypopigmented streaks that enlarge and widen with the end stage being disciform macular degeneration, helicoid peripapillary atrophy, or diffuse choroidal sclerosis. In the setting of neonatal cholestasis, the findings of microcornea, posterior embryotoxon, mosaic iris stromal hypoplasia, anomalous optic discs, and regional peripapillary retinal depigmentation suggest the diagnosis of Alagille syndrome (arteriohepatic dysplasia).