Ocular manifestations of leukemia: leukemic infiltration versus infectious process

To determine whether specific guidelines can be developed to distinguish whether retinal infiltration in leukemia patients represents infection or neoplasia.

Retrospective noncomparative interventional case series.

Six patients recently seen at University of California San Francisco with retinal infiltrates in a setting of leukemia, for which adequate written and photographic information of disease course was available.

Observation consisted of retrospective review of clinic charts, hospital medical records, and fundus photographs.

Determination of whether retinal infiltrates represented neoplasia or infection was made by review of medical records.

In this series, neoplastic retinal infiltrates were found in patients who had newly diagnosed leukemia and those who were in blast crisis. In contrast, the two patients who were in complete remission, but had undergone bone marrow transplantation, had retinal infiltrates attributable to infection.

Every patient with retinal infiltrates in the setting of newly or previously diagnosed leukemia requires a systemic and central nervous system workup before the initiation of ophthalmologic treatment. The systemic status of the patient is highly informative in determining whether infection or neoplasia is responsible for the infiltration.