Case Report: Optical Coherence Tomography Can Find Typical Features in Pregnancy-induced Hypertension with...

Pregnancy-induced hypertension is a unique yet common complication in pregnant women and may cause retinopathy. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) may help find the features of retinopathy that are difficult to observe through fundus examination. Not all patients can fully recover from retinopathy.

This report describes a case of pregnancy-induced hypertension with retinopathy and represents the features of retinopathy in OCT and fundus fluorescein angiography.

A 29-year-old pregnant woman presented with bilateral blurred vision and xanthopsia 2 days before her induced labor; she was also diagnosed as pre-eclamptic in the obstetrics department. The vision in her right eye was 20/33, and that in her left eye was 20/20. Fundus fluorescein angiography showed scattered-dot hypofluorescence around the disc at an early stage, and needle-like hyperfluorescence gradually appeared near the disc with late-stage fluorescein leakage in both eyes. Optical coherence tomography revealed multiple shallow retinal detachments with hyperreflective bright spots in the outer retina and clumped hyperreflective materials on the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).

Typical findings and some tiny changes in the outer retina and RPE can be observed through spectral-domain OCT. The clumped hyperreflective deposits in the outer retina may be by-products of RPE swelling and necrosis that lead to barrier dysfunctions and fluid leakage. These described features may help diagnose retinopathy from pregnancy-induced hypertension. Although it is a self-limited disease, the disruptions in the ellipsoid and interdigitation zones may not fully recover and result in reduced visual dysfunction. Therefore, control of hypertension is indicated.