A patient with long standing melanin laden macrophages in cerebrospinal fluid in Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada syndrome
- Department of Ophthalmology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
- Department of Neurology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
- Accepted 13 September 1997
- Department of Ophthalmology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
- Department of Neurology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
- Mitsuru Nakazawa, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 1–1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980–77, Japan.
- Accepted 13 September 1997
Editor,—The cause of Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada syndrome (VKH) is suspected to be systemic immunological reactions in various organs containing melanocytes.1-5 It has been suggested that the cell mediated immune process involving melanocytes plays an important role in the pathogenesis of VKH.1-5Supporting this idea, we previously reported the existence of melanin laden macrophages (MLMs) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of VKH patients.6 In clinical practice, as in our present case, detecting MLMs in CSF provides useful information on the activity of the patient’s systemic immunological reactions.
CASE REPORT
A 60 year old woman visited our hospital with blurred vision, tinnitus, and headache. Our first examination revealed that her best corrected visual acuity was 0.02 in the right eye and 0.01 in the left. Slit-lamp examination disclosed cellular infiltration in the anterior chamber and vitreous. …
