Síndrome paraneoplásico ocular: retinopatía asociada al cáncer

Case ReportWe review a patient with ocular manifestations of a paraneoplastic syndrome. It was a cancer-associated retinopathy (CAR) in a woman with visual loss, and attenuated and sheathed retinal arterioles. The electroretinography (ERG) showed severe abnormalities of the a and b-waves. The tumour process was not discovered until 6 months later, when a squamous neoplasia that invaded the uterus and vagina was observed.DiscussionParaneoplastic syndromes are a group of manifestations produced as a remote effect of cancer cells. CAR syndrome is caused by autoimmune reactions to retinal antigens induced by aberrant expression of recoverin in cancer tissues. Ophthalmologists must be aware of ocular paraneoplastic signs as they can be the first manifestations of a malignant tumour.     

Eficiencia al digitalizar un archivo fotográfico antiguo de oftalmología

ObjectiveTo digitise our old archive and evaluate the efficiency of this task, both in medical and economic terms.Material and methodsAll slides and negatives (8,254) archived in our clinic were collected, digitised with a 5-megapixel slide scanner. The images were taken from 1972 to 1999. Quality and utility of images were taken into account, as far as costs of the task (up to 2,100 euros), all the work done by the same ophthalmologist.ResultsOf those identifiable, 62% of the patients had already died. Only 1.5% were archived for use; 70 images for teaching reasons and 60 for medical reasons, being incorporated into the patient's history. About 210 hours were spent on scanning, identifying, checking and uploading images. 84% corresponded to retinal pathology, 4% to glaucomatous pathology, 3% to anterior segment pathology and the last 9% to learning material. The quality of most images is good, and, in some cases, were important for the correct diagnosis of the pathology. If only medical reasons are taken into account, the number of images uploaded is very low when working with archives older than 50 years.ConclusionsAlthough there was a low percentage of scanned images, the task was efficient because of a low cost. Images older than 50 years must be evaluated before scanning because of their low utility.