This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

James R. Coppeto, MD
Waterbury, Conn

Arch Ophthalmol. 1984;102(12):1748-1749.

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

To the Editor.

—With regard to Mines and coauthors'¹ case of retinopathy and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), I suggest that syphilis or some other systemic disorder modified the manifestation of SLE oculopathy. Papillitis with panuveitis in the absence of florid vaso-occlusion is rare in SLE but not in syphilis.^2-3 Neither the patient's claim of "appropriate treatment" for syphilis nor the negative results of VDRL spinal-fluid testing excludes the diagnosis of ocular syphilis.^6-9 In fact, prednisone therapy may have activated latent syphilis.

I consider carefully studied, unusual findings of systemic diseases important because they help define the range of ocular manifestations of those diseases. However, the occurrence of unusual or unanticipated retinopathies or optic neuropathies in cases of known systemic diseases may indicate a second process at work. A few of such cases I have observed include the following:

1. A 32-year-old woman taking oral contraceptives had a
   

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?