Acute Macular Neuroretinopathy Associated With Chikungunya Fever

A 47-year-old man with recent travel to the Caribbean was admitted with acute febrileillness associated with arthralgia and skin rash followed by sudden onset of bilateral visual field defects. Funduscopy revealed subtle bilateral paracentral dark lesions nasal to the fovea best seen on near infrared imaging as hyporeflective, wedge-shaped, paracentral macular lesions. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) through the lesions revealed hyperreflective bands at the level of the outer plexiform layer and outer nuclear layer (ONL), with concomitant attenuation of the underlying external limiting membrane (ELM), ellipsoid zone (EZ), and interdigitation zone (IZ). Neither fluorescein angiography nor speckle variance OCT angiography (sv-OCTA) showed any defects in retinal circulation. Work up revealed positive Immunoglobulin M for Chikungunya virus (CHIKV). Six months later, the patient had persistent scotomas, although reduced in size. SD-OCT showed subtle ONL thinning and restoration of the ELM, although EZ and IZ remained disrupted. Chikungunya fever may manifest as bilateral acute macular neuroretinopathy (AMN). Clinicians should be aware of possible systemic associations of AMN. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2016;47:596-599.].