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Arch Ophthalmol. 2002;120:85-87.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Hemoglobin spherulosis, a rare histological finding, represents a spherical degradation product of hemoglobin. It has been described in a single report as a vitreous hemorrhage originating from the subretinal space. We describe an immunosuppressed patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and associated thrombocytopenia, with bilateral white intraretinal and subretinal hemorrhages, along with an overlying vitreous hemorrhage. Cytologic examination of a vitrectomy specimen demonstrated hemoglobin spherulosis. This represents only the second report of this phenomenon.

Three unusual sequelae of longstanding vitreous hemorrhage are cholesterolosis bulbi (synchisis scintillans), the formation of tubular vitreous cylinders, and hemoglobin spherulosis.¹ The last entity represents a spheroidal degradation product of erythrocytes and was first described by Grossniklaus et al² in an eye with a vitreous hemorrhage secondary to an idiopathic choroidal neovascular membrane. Spherulosis was so named because of its histologic resemblance to myospherulosis, an inflammatory condition characterized by saclike clusters of degenerating erythrocytes that have . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Report of a Case


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Corresponding author: William F. Mieler, MD, Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, 6565 Fannin St, NC-205, Houston, TX 77030 (e-mail: wmieler@bcm.tmc.edu).