[Clinical chorioretinal aspects of systemic immune vasculitis. I. General aspects]

The eye, due to its rich vascularity, is frequently involved, directly or not, in the systemic immune vascular pathology. For a better understanding of the ocular clinical syndrome, the paper discusses the etiologic and pathogenic factors, and their influence on the characteristics of chorioretinal changes. The etiologic factors are classified according to the predominance of the lesions of the choroidal or retinal vessels. The pathogeny of the chorioretinal changes is correlated with the histopathologic lesion (fibrinoid necrosis) and its involvement in the "choriocapillaris complex-brush membrane-EPR". Clinical chorioretinal syndrome, irrespective of its etiology, induces several retinal and choroidal changes having varied as a function of the evolution stage.