The blood-retinal barrier in chloroquine retinopathy.
Chloroquine retinopathy can result in devastating loss of vision. To date, there are no effective and reliable methods of detecting the toxicity at an early stage when retinopathy may be reversible. Chloroquine is deposited in the retinal pigment epithelium, which forms part of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB). By vitreous fluorophotometry we have shown that there is breakdown of the BRB in chloroquine retinopathy. However, in asymptomatic patients who had received varying amounts of hydroxychloroquine (up to 1067 g), the BRB remained intact.
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, England.
M F
MF
Raines
S K
SK
Bhargava
E S
ES
Rosen
D000368:Aged; D001813:Blood-Retinal Barrier / Q000187:drug effects*; D002738:Chloroquine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D005470:Fluorometry; D006801:Humans; D006886:Hydroxychloroquine / Q000009:adverse effects; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010857:Pigment Epithelium of Eye / Q000187:drug effects; D012164:Retinal Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology; D014787:Vision Tests; D014792:Visual Acuity
D006886:Hydroxychloroquine; D002738:Chloroquine