Acute frosted retinal periphlebitis associated with cytomegalovirus retinitis

The clinical picture of an acute frosted periphlebitis has been reported in a limited number of otherwise healthy patients, and in one case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The disease is usually bilateral and highly sensitive to steroids. The case of a 26-year-old, HIV-seropositive woman who developed unilateral diffuse perivenous sheathing in the course of recurrent cytomegalovirus retinitis is reported. The appearance of the retinovasculitis was identical to that described as an acute frosted periphlebitis, and the disease proved to be highly sensitive to a combined treatment of steroids and ganciclovir. The clinical findings in this case support the possibility that the appearance of an acute frosted periphlebitis can occur in response to several different stimuli, including cytomegalovirus.