Central serous chorioretinopathy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Purpose: To describe three patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in whom ophthalmoscopic and fluorescein angiographic evidence of central serous chorioretinopathy developed.

Methods: The authors retrospectively reviewed the clinical and photographic records of three patients with systemic lupus erythematous in whom central serous chorioretinopathy developed.

Results: Ophthalmoscopic changes observed in these patients with systemic lupus erythematosus included discrete areas of clumping and mottling of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), focal RPE detachments, serous elevations of the neurosensory retina, and late subretinal fibrosis with scar formation. Fluorescein angiographic findings included transmission hypofluorescence and hyperfluorescence corresponding to focal RPE alterations, early punctate intense hyperfluorescence corresponding to RPE leaks with progressive filling of sub-RPE detachment spaces, and slow late filing of subretinal detachment spaces.

Conclusion: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus are at increased risk to have central serous chorioretinopathy develop. The pathogenetic implications for an association between systemic lupus erythematosus and central serous chorioretinopathy as well as the similarity to the chorioretinopathy seen with accelerated hypertension, pregnancy, hemodialysis, organ transplantation, and exogenous and endogenous hypercortisolism are discussed. Focal choroidal vasculature compromise with secondary dysfunction of overlying RPE cells is the proposed common mechanism.