Comparison on clinical characteristics of multifocal choroiditis and punctate inner choriodopathy

To compare the differences in the clinical characteristics of multifocal choroiditis (MFC) and punctate inner choriodopathy (PIC).

A cross-sectional study, consisting of 22 cases (37 eyes) with MFC and 11 cases (18 eyes) with PIC, was carried out. Multiple indexes were measured and analysed to compare the differences in clinical characteristics of the subjects between two groups, including BCVA, avergae age, sex composition, presence of intraocular inflammation, choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and intraocular inflammation complications, such as cataract, cystoid macular edema (CME) and epiretinal membrane (ERM).

The average age of the MFC and PIC patients were (48.1±13.9) years and (32.1±10.2) years with a significant difference (P=0.043). CNV occurred more frequently in patients with PIC (PIC, 55.6% ;MFC, 21.6%;P=0.016) compared with those with MFC. MFC patients had a higher frequency of intraocular inflammation complications, such as, cataract (27.0%), CME(35.1%), ERM(5.4%). PIC patients presented none of these complications. MFC subjects presented with more visual impairments than PIC patients. Totally 51.4% of MFC patients had visual impairments and 22.2% of PIC patients had BCVA < 0.3 (P=0.047) .

Both MFC and PIC are categorized into the umbrella term of "white spot syndromes". Although sharing similar ocular expressions, they present with different clinical characteristics. Patients with PIC had a higher frequency of CNV but a lower frequency of structural complications caused by intraocular inflammation and lower frequency of visual impairments compared with MFC counterparts.