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Retinal Involvement in COVID-19: Results From a Prospective Retina Screening Program in the Acute and Convalescent Phase

Authors :
Reema Bansal
Ashish Markan
Nitin Gautam
Rashmi Ranjan Guru
P. V. M. Lakshmi
Deeksha Katoch
Aniruddha Agarwal
Mini P. Singh
Vikas Suri
Ritin Mohindra
Neeru Sahni
Ashish Bhalla
Pankaj Malhotra
Vishali Gupta
G. D. Puri
Source :
Frontiers in Medicine, Vol 8 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Frontiers Media S.A., 2021.

Abstract

Objective: To detect retinal involvement in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in acute and convalescent phase by their fundus screening.Methods: In a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study (July–November 2020), 235 patients (142 acute and 93 convalescent phase) underwent fundus screening in a tertiary care center in North India. For convalescent phase, “hospitalized” patients (73) were screened at least 2 weeks after hospital discharge, and “home-isolated” patients (20) were screened 17 days after symptom onset/COVID-19 testing.Results: None in acute phase showed any retinal lesion that could be attributed exclusively to COVID-19. Five patients (5.38%) in convalescent phase had cotton wool spots (CWSs) with/without retinal hemorrhage, with no other retinal finding, and no visual symptoms, seen at a median of 30 days from COVID-19 diagnosis.Conclusions: CWSs (and retinal hemorrhages) were an incidental finding in COVID-19, detected only in the convalescent phase. These patients were much older (median age = 69 years) than the average age of our sample and had systemic comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, etc.). We propose the term “COVID-19 retinopathy” to denote the presence of CWSs at the posterior pole, occasionally associated with intraretinal hemorrhages, in the absence of ocular inflammation in patients with a history of COVID-19 disease.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2296858X
Volume :
8
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Frontiers in Medicine
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.510a301777cd4faf9dc3d4f789cad032
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.681942