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Case ReportAn OCT Study of Anterior Nodular Episcleritis and Scleritis

Christos Christakopoulos

Department of Ophthalmology, Zealand University Hospital, Næstved, Denmark

Correspondence should be addressed to Christos Christakopoulos; [email protected]

Received 26 November 2016; Revised 6 February 2017; Accepted 7 February 2017; Published 28 February 2017

Academic Editor: Alexander A. Bialasiewicz

Copyright © 2017 Christos Christakopoulos. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.

Anterior scleritis and episcleritis are a well-known presentation in tuberculosis. The case of a female patient with presumedtuberculous anterior scleritis and episcleritis is discussed in this article. Anterior segment OCT was efficient in diagnosis andevaluation of the therapeutic outcome. Antituberculosis chemotherapy was sufficient to achieve clinical remission.

1. Introduction

Tuberculous scleritis is rare [1–3]. Commonly it presents asanterior nodular scleritis, which can be caused either by directinoculation [4] or by hematogenous spread ofMycobacteriumtuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) [1]. The characteristic nodularinflammatory lesions can be detected by slit-lamp biomi-croscopy but assessment of their vertical extension is difficult.However, recently, it was reported that optical coherencetomography (OCT) of the anterior segment can be used indiagnosing anterior scleritis and episcleritis [5], and here Ireport the OCT characteristics and changes during treatmentof a nodular eye wall lesion in a patient infected with M.tuberculosis.

2. Case Presentation

A 52-year-old female of West African origin was referredto the Department of Ophthalmology, Zealand UniversityHospital.The patient had for the last 5 years been treated withDexamethasone (1mg/ml) eye drops (Maxidex, Alcon) on anon-off basis because of a red right eye (RE). Local therapy wasnot helpful and the patient had discontinued the treatmentweeks before admission to our department.

On admission the patient experienced a persistent senseof ocular congestion and pain in RE. Left eye (LE) wasasymptomatic. Visual acuity was 20/40 in RE and 20/15 inthe left eye. Slit-lamp examination showed violaceous ocularinjection around a subconjunctival nodular thickening at

4mm from limbus and vessel dilation of both the superficialand deep vascular plexuses (Figures 1 and 2(a)).

Anterior segment OCT (spectral-domain OCT, 3DOCT-2000; Topcon Corp, Tokyo, Japan) at the center of the hyper-emic lesion revealed hyporeflective spaces and hyperreflec-tive nodules on the episcleral tissue band (Figures 1(a), 1(b),and 2(a)). Hyporeflective spaces bisecting the scleral lamellaewere also apparent (Figures 1 and 2(a)). These findings wereconsistent with nodular episcleritis and anterior scleritis inthe RE.

Ultrasound B-scan and dilated fundus biomicroscopydemonstrated no signs of posterior scleritis.

Swabs from conjunctiva forM. tuberculosis PCR analysisreturned negative.

Comprehensive serologic evaluation including Quanti-FERON-TB Gold, venereal disease research laboratory(VDRL), rapid plasma reagin (RPR), antineutrophilic cyto-plasmic antibodies (ANCA), and angiotensin convertingenzyme (ACE) was performed.The patient tested positive onQuantiferon assay. Chest radiography showed no pathologi-cal changes. In addition, further medical work-up performedat the Department of Infectious Diseases, Zealand UniversityHospital, revealed no other sites of tuberculosis.

Due to suspicion of tuberculous scleritis and episcleri-tis, antituberculosis chemotherapy was initiated, comprisingEthambutol, Pyrazinamide, Isoniazid, and Rifampicin. Onfollow-up the patient reported immediate improvement inocular symptoms. Ocular examination with OCT confirmedreduction in the size of the hyperreflective nodules in the

HindawiCase Reports in Ophthalmological MedicineVolume 2017, Article ID 5742673, 3 pageshttps://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5742673

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2 Case Reports in Ophthalmological Medicine

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: On the left side: colour photography of the right eyeball; congestion of the superficial blood vessels and dilation of the episcleralvessels (arrowhead). On the right side: (a) anterior segment OCT (dashed line on eyeball photography). Nodular episcleral thickening(asterisk), subepiscleral fluid level (black arrow), and intralamellar scleral oedema (white arrow). (b) Anterior segment OCT (solid line oneyeball photography). Transverse section of dilated episcleral vessel (arrowhead) corresponding to relevant location on eyeball photography.Subepiscleral fluid level (black arrow) and intralamellar scleral oedema (asterisk).

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2: (a) RE, superotemporal sector hyperaemia, episcleral nodule (asterisk), subepiscleral oedema (arrow), and scleral oedema(arrowhead). (b) RE, after antituberculous chemotherapy initiation, hyperaemia subsided and nodules have disappeared but subepiscleral(arrowhead) and scleral oedema persist (arrow). (c) RE, after termination of therapy, no hyperaemia is present, and no oedema can be detectedin the scleral or episcleral layers adjacent to previously detectable lesion.

Case Reports in Ophthalmological Medicine 3

episcleral layer band but enduring hyporeflective intrascleralspaces (Figure 2(b)).

After 4 months of initial treatment the patient continuedwith Isoniazid and Rifampicin for another 2 months. Onexamination upon conclusion of antimycobacterial chemo-therapy the patient reported no ocular discomfort and ocularexamination demonstrated total remission of the hyperemia(Figure 2(c)) and elimination of the episcleral and the sclerallesions.

3. Discussion

Tuberculous scleritis is a well-documented condition buttuberculous nodular episcleritis has only sparsely beendescribed before [6]. A report on tuberculous sclerokeratitissuggested the usefulness of OCT in anterior segment dis-ease evaluation [7]. The presence of episcleral and scleralcomponent at the same location suggests initial developmentof nodular episcleritis, probably representing the primarylesion, and subsequent involvement of the sclera as man-ifested by the intralamellar hyporeflective spaces on OCT(Figures 1(b) and 2(b)). Current research findings supportan association of the latter scleral morphology on OCT withclinical scleritis [5].

Another report has previously emphasized the clinicalsuspicion of tuberculosis in cases of scleritis unresponsive toanti-inflammatory medications [8]. In the present case thepositive Quantiferon assay [9] along with patient origin froma country of high prevalence [10] raised the clinical suspicionof tuberculosis. Quantiferon assay has been applied before inthe diagnostic assessment of presumed tuberculous scleritisprimarily due to the high specificity of this method [11].Additional data indicate that it may exhibit better sensitivitythan Mantoux test in confirming ocular tuberculosis [12].

The favorable response to antituberculosis chemotherapyin this case supported the causative connection. This isin accordance with the existing assumption that favorableresponse to antituberculosis chemotherapy may serve asindirect evidence of disease [13].

The patient outcome underscores the efficacy of systemicantimycobacterial treatment in the setting of tuberculousscleritis and episcleritis. Anterior segment OCT can beutilized in order to assess the extent of the outer ocular wallinflammation and evaluate the treatment response.

Competing Interests

The author declares that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper.

References

[1] C. J. Helm and G. N. Holland, “Ocular tuberculosis,” Survey ofOphthalmology, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 229–256, 1993.

[2] S. E. Bloomfield, B. Mondino, and G. F. Gray, “Scleral tubercu-losis,” Archives of Ophthalmology, vol. 94, no. 6, pp. 954–956,1976.

[3] J. S. Saini, A. Sharma, and P. Pillai, “Scleral tuberculosis,”Tropical and Geographical Medicine, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 350–352,1988.

[4] M. Nanda, S. C. Pflugfelder, and S. Holland, “Mycobacteriumtuberculosis scleritis,” American Journal of Ophthalmology, vol.108, no. 6, pp. 736–737, 1989.

[5] S. S. Shoughy, M. O. Jaroudi, I. Kozak, and K. F. Tabbara, “Opti-cal coherence tomography in the diagnosis of scleritis and epi-scleritis,”American Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 159, no. 6, pp.1045.e1–1049.e1, 2015.

[6] B. P. Bathula, S. Pappu, S. R. Epari et al., “Tubercular nodularepiscleritis,” Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences,vol. 54, pp. 135–136, 2012.

[7] N. Hashida, A. Terubayashi, and N. Ohguro, “Anterior segmentoptical coherence tomography findings of presumed intraocu-lar tuberculosis,” Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology, vol. 30, no.1, pp. 75–77, 2011.

[8] J. Biswas, A. C. Aparna, A. Radha, K. Vaijayanthi, and R.Bagyalakshmi, “Tuberculous scleritis in a patient with rheuma-toid arthritis,” Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, vol. 20,no. 1, pp. 49–52, 2012.

[9] R. Gineys, B. Bodaghi, G. Carcelain et al., “QuantiFERON-TB gold cut-off value: implications for the management oftuberculosis-related ocular inflammation,” American Journal ofOphthalmology, vol. 152, no. 3, pp. 433–440, 2011.

[10] World Health Organization, Global TB database, http://www.who.int/tb/country/data/profiles/en/.

[11] W. Taki, H. Keino, T. Watanabe, C. Nakashima, and A. A.Okada, “Interferon-𝛾 release assay in tuberculous scleritis,”Arc-hives of Ophthalmology, vol. 129, no. 3, pp. 368–371, 2011.

[12] S. Sudharshan, S. K. Ganesh, G. Balu et al., “Utility ofQuantiFERON�-TB Gold test in diagnosis and management ofsuspected tubercular uveitis in India,” International Ophthal-mology, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 217–223, 2012.

[13] H. A. Lhaj, A. Benjelloun, Y. Bouia et al., “Latent tuberculosis-related scleritis: a case report,” BMC Research Notes, vol. 9, no.1, article no. 446, 2016.

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