North Carolina macular dystrophy: clinicopathologic correlation.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical and histopathologic findings of a 72-year-old female with North Carolina macular dystrophy.


METHODS
Observational case report with histopathologic correlation. Clinical examination includes slit-lamp biomicroscopy, indirect ophthalmoscopy, color fundus photography, and focal electroretinography. Histopathologic examination of the enucleated left eye performed with light microscopy.


RESULTS
Light microscopy demonstrated a discrete macular lesion characterized by focal absence of photoreceptor cells and retinal pigment epithelium with attenuation of the Bruch membrane and focal atrophy of the choriocapillaris. Adjacent to the macular lesion, some lipofuscin was identified in the retinal pigment epithelium.


CONCLUSIONS
North Carolina macular dystrophy has both clinical and microscopic appearances of a well-demarcated lesion confined to the macula, which involves the retina, pigment epithelium, and choriocapillaris.
Voo
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I
Department of Ophthalmology, Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, 100 Stein Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Glasgow
B J
BJ
Flannery
J
J
Udar
N
N
Small
K W
KW
D000368:Aged; D001284:Atrophy; D004596:Electroretinography; D005260:Female; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy; D010781:Photography; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000473:pathology*; D010857:Pigment Epithelium of Eye / Q000473:pathology*; D011446:Prospective Studies