INTRAOCULAR LYMPHOMA PRESENTING AS RETINAL VASCULITIS

We describe two unusual young patients with intraocular lymphoma who p resented clinically with ''retinal vasculitis.'' Brain biopsy specimen s in both showed an angiocentric pattern of lymphocytic infiltration. Immunohistochemical studies were positive for T-cell markers. Both the retinal and the brain blood vessels were thus a preferential site of appearance of the malignant T-cells. Both cases responded favorably to aggressive chemotherapy with long-term survival. In the world's liter ature, there are 57 cases of intraocular lymphoma in which cell surfac e-marker studies were performed; of these, 53% proved to be B-cell lym phomas and 21% to be T-cell lymphomas. As more cases of intraocular ly mphoma are studied with cell-typing and as our histochemical technique s improve, a correlation between the systemic and ocular findings and the cell type may be revealed.