Retinal manifestations of Mediterranean spotted fever

The authors studied the incidence, type and systemic relationship of the retinal findings observed by ophthalmoscopy in Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF) in a consecutive series of 34 cases. It is found that retinal vasculitis either arterial and/or, more frequently, venous is present in 55.9% of the cases. Branch vein retinal thrombosis appeared as complication of such small vessel vasculitis in 1 case. Although frequent, the retinal findings were asymptomatic in all cases but the retinal vein thrombosis one, and were not significatively related to or were predicted by other systemic parameters of severity of the disease. Because of its frequency, retinal vasculitis might be considered as an important clinical sign of MSF in endemic areas.