title: Terrien's marginal degeneration accompanied by latticed stromal opacities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We report a case of Terrien's marginal degeneration (TMD) with a unilaterally typical narrow band of peripheral corneal stroma thinning, accompanied by the presence of an unusual network of opacities diffusing throughout the anterior stroma layers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 43-year-old woman presented with superior nasal peripheral corneal thinning and an unusual network of polygonal stromal opacities in the anterior corneal stroma of the right eye. Latticed corneal changes were unusually extensive and distributed diffusely in the stroma. No abnormalities were found in the corneal epithelium and in the basal epithelial cells. No noticeable changes were found in the left eye. Because of a progressively worse ocular irritation of the right eye, a diagnosis of TMD was made for this patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This case of TMD accompanied by keratopathy was unusual. The branching stromal lattice pattern of the corneal opacities was difficult to distinguish from lattice corneal dystrophy. In this case, the polygonal stromal opacities were located in the anterior corneal stroma and therefore were distinguished from a similar manifestation in posterior crocodile shagreen.
authors.affiliation: *MD †MD, PhD Department of Ophthalmology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Yibing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003317:Corneal Dystrophies, Hereditary / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D003318:Corneal Opacity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D063171:Corneal Pachymetry; D003319:Corneal Stroma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology