PRESUMED ACQUIRED OCULAR TOXOPLASMOSIS

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics and laboratory fin dings of eight patients with focal chorioretinitis presumably caused b y acquired toxoplasmosis. Design: Case series. Setting: Referral hospi tals in the Netherlands. Patients: Eight patients, aged 42 to 75 years , with unilateral focal chorioretinitis and laboratory evidence of a r ecently acquired infection with Toxoplasma gondii. Main Outcome Measur es: Findings from ocular examination and analysis of both serum and aq ueous humor samples for Toxoplasma and viral antibodies. Results: All patients had unilateral focal chorioretinitis without associated old s cars in the posterior pole. Patients treated with systemic or periocul ar corticosteroids not accompanied by antiparasitic medication showed a rapid increase of inflammation. All eight patients had Toxoplasma Ig M antibodies in their serum samples, seven of whom had high Toxoplasma IgG titers. Five of eight patients had increased intraocular producti on of IgG antibodies against T gondii. Conclusion: Unilateral focal ch orioretinitis in patients of any age should alert the clinician to con sider acquired ocular toxoplasmosis in the differential diagnosis.