Presence of vitronectin in neovascularised cornea of patient with gelatinous drop-like dystrophy
- S Yoshida1,
- A Yoshida1,
- T Ishibashi1,
- Y Kumano2,
- T Matsui2
- 1Department of Ophthalmology, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medicine, Fukuoka, 812–8582, Japan
- 2Ohshima Hospital of Ophthalmology, Fukuoka, 812–0036, Japan.
- Correspondence to: Shigeo Yoshida, MD, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medicine, Fukuoka, 812–582, Japan; usyosi{at}yahoo.com
- Accepted 12 August 2002
Gelatinous drop-like corneal dystrophy (GDLD) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that is most often seen in Japan. This bilateral dystrophy usually presents in the first decade of life and is associated with a decrease of visual acuity. Typically, a mulberry-like opacity is present with protuberant subepithelial mounds that grow with age. Corneal neovascularisation (NV) also accompanies advanced cases.1 Corneal transplantation is the major therapeutic option for GDLD, but because NV can significantly increase the risk of graft rejection, a better understanding of the mechanism(s) for the corneal NV would be valuable.
Case report
A 39 year old Japanese man with GDLD was studied. His right eye had band-shaped corneal opacities in the interpalpebral area with a number of gelatinous prominences, and vascular invasions from the superior limbus into the clear cornea (Fig 1A). Because the visual acuity of the right eye had decreased to 20/800, penetrating keratoplasty was performed, and the diagnosis of GDLD was …
