Retinal oxalosis. A clinicopathologic report.

A 55-year-old woman with chronic renal failure treated with hemodialysis had severe bilateral visual loss develop due to retinal ischemia. Ophthalmoscopy showed crystals in the distribution of the retinal arteries, but not veins, and this led to a diagnosis of systemic oxalosis. Factors contributing to systemic oxalosis in addition to renal failure were ascorbic acid dietary supplementation, pyridoxine deficiency, and ileal resection.

Alpha transducin is present in blue-, green-, and red-sensitive cone photoreceptors in the human retina.

Phototransduction in vertebrate rod and cone photoreceptor cells involves G protein-mediated light stimulation of cGMP hydrolysis. Enzymes of the cGMP hydrolysis cascades of rods and cones are products of different genes. Three different classes of cones in the human retina are maximally sensitive to either blue, green, or red light.

Aspergillus necrotizing retinitis. A clinico-pathologic study and review.

The authors describe a case of bilateral acute necrotizing retinitis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus in an immunocompromised host. The patient rapidly lose useful vision and expired from progressive systemic disease while on parenteral amphotericin B. Postmortem aqueous cultures were negative whereas vitreous cultures were positive.

Long-term corneal retention of a plant foreign body.

A fragment of sunflower stalk had been retained in the cornea of a 71-year-old man for 58 years. During initial healing of the wound, which included formation of a retrocorneal membrane over the foreign body in the anterior chamber, there was probably loss of endothelial cells. This probably predisposed the cornea to the endothelial decompensation that occurred following cataract extraction and implant of an intraocular lens 56 years after the foreign body first appeared in the cornea.