AQUEOUS FLARE IN RETINITIS-PIGMENTOSA

Background: The purpose of this study was to quantify blood-ocular bar rier impairment by measuring aqueous flare in retinitis pigmentosa (RP ) and to search for clinical correlations. Methods: Forty-nine patient s (94 eyes) with RP and 85 normal controls were examined. Aqueous flar e was quantified with the noninvasive laser flare-cell meter (FC-1000, Kowa, Japan). Degrees of cystoid macular edema (CME), vitreous pigmen t dusting (VPD), intraretinal migration of retinal pigment epithelium, and waxy pallor of the optic nerve head were determined semiquantitat ively by biomicroscopy. Data were analyzed using the t-test the Mann-W hitney U-test, the chi-squared test and regression analysis by taking into account the dependency of data from two eyes of the same patients . Results: Aqueous flare (photon counts/ms) was significantly higher i n RP (mean 10.11+/-3.53) than in normals (3.89+/-0.94; P<0.001). Clini cally significant CME was present in 26% of eyes with RP, being signif icantly more frequent in autosomal dominant RP (11 of 16 eyes, 69%) th an in other variants (17%; P<0.005). Multivariate analysis revealed th at CME was most strongly associated with flare values (r=0.84, P<0.01) , whereas - after adjusting for CME - correlations between aqueous fla re and other clinical findings did not reach significance. Conclusion: RP eyes show increased aqueous flare values, indicating impairment of blood-ocur barriers. This appears to be associated with CME and with autosomal dominant RP.