GRAY-WHITE, SPHERICAL DEPOSITION ON RETINAL VESSEL ASSOCIATED WITH ACUTE RETINAL NECROSIS AND DIABETIC-RETINOPATHY IN HTLV-I CARRIERS

Tiny, gray-white, spherical deposits were found on the retinal vessels and vitreo-retinal interface of the fovea in a 55-year-old woman with acute retinal necrosis due to varicella-zoster virus, and in a 47-yea r-old man with preproliferative diabetic retinopathy. Both patients de veloped massive vitreous opacities due to uveal inflammation or hemorr hages that rendered the fundus difficult to visualize. A therapeutic v itrectomy revealed gray-white, tiny spherical deposits, about blood-ve ssel-diameter, which were scattered on seemingly intact retinal arteri es and veins in the posterior fundus and over the vitreoretinal interf ace overlying the fovea. The deposits were loosely adherent to vessel walls and were easily aspirated, and the residual materials resolved i n the early postoperative days. These characteristic retinal vascular deposits resembled those seen in patients with HTLV-I associated uveit is. The two patients reported herein were otherwise asymptomatic carri ers of HTLV-I. The findings provide additional information about the e tiological role of HTLV-I in the development of characteristic retinal vascular deposition, although its pathogenesis remains to be elucidat ed. (C) 1998 Japanese Ophthalmological Society.