© 2005 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
IMAGES IN MEDICINE
White retinal vessels
Department of Internal Medicine, Hatzikosta General Hospital of Ioannina, Greece
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr K Paparounas
Department of Internal Medicine, Hatzikosta General Hospital, 45001 Ioannina, Greece; kostpap@otenet.gr
Keywords: ophthalmology
| The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below. |
A 69 year old woman with a history of diabetes mellitus presented with acute abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings were consistent with a diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. Fundus examination showed a milky-white discoloration of some blood retinal vessels in both eyes (fig 1
). This ophthalmoscopic appearance, termed lipaemia retinalis, is an unusual retinal manifestation of hypertriglyceridaemia and occurs only in pronounced raised concentrations of serum triglycerides.1 Our patient had a triglyceride concentration of 82.64 mmol/l (reference <2.03 mmol/l). She made an uneventful recovery, and one week after admission triglycerides decreased to 6.17 mmol/l while the creamy-white appearance of retinal vessels reverted to normal.
[in a new window] Figure 1 Fundus photograph showing cream coloured retinal blood vessels attributable to lipaemia retinalis. Vessels with normal reddish hue and other with mixed red and creamy-white appearance are also evident.
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- Vinger PF, Sachs BA. Ocular manifestations of hyperlipoproteinemia. Am J Ophthalmol 1970;70:563–73.[Medline]
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