Acute retinal pigment epitheliitis (ARPE). A case report

A 35-year-old woman arrived in the emergency department due to loss of vision in the left eye. She had a subfoveal yellowish-looking lesion that, on optical coherence tomography (OCT), corresponded to a hyper-reflective lesion from the external nuclear layer to the retinal pigment epithelium. The lesion was reabsorbed at 6 weeks, leaving a discontinuity in the photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelium lines. The patient was diagnosed with acute retinal pigmentary epitheliitis (ARPE). ARPE is a self-limiting disease with a good prognosis. Emphasis is placed on the importance of a correct diagnosis using funduscopy, OCT, and fluorescent angiography, in order to avoid unnecessary treatments.