Bilateral central lipid infiltrates of the cornea

A 55-year-old woman developed a skin rash and lipid deposition centrally in previously normal corneas. Despite a family history of coronary artery disease, no serum lipid abnormality was detected. Lipid droplets and granules were deposited throughout the corneal epithelium and stroma. Histochemical stains were positive only for phosopholipid and galactolipid. After a keratoplasty, deposition of similar lipid material recurred in the graft. An inflammatory process and increased corneosceleral limbal vascular permeability may have accounted for the unusual corneal findings in this patient.