Ocular manifestations in patients diagnosed with dengue in a reference hospital in the city of Manaus, Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: To determine the prevalence of ocular alterations in patients diagnosed with dengue, admitted to a reference center for infectious and parasitic diseases in Manaus (AM), Brazil. Methods: This was an observational, analytical, and prospective case series study with 33 patients admitted to the hospital with positive clinical pathology tests during a 90-day period of a dengue epidemic in 2011. The investigations included measurement of visual acuity, macular assessment with Amsler grid test, fundus biomicroscopy, retinography and optical coherence tomography. Results: The average age of the patients was 35.48 years (minimum age 17 years and maximum 69 years). The main symptoms reported were blurred vision, followed by retro-ocular pain, photopsia, halos, foreign bodies, scotoma, double vision, and floaters. Visual acuity ranged from 20/20 to 20/40 (median 20/30). Macular assessment with Amsler Grid Test was unsatisfactory in three patients. The most common retinal findings were perimacular edema, macular edema, retinal hemorrhage, vasculitis, and changes in the retinal pigment epithelium. Optical coherence tomography showed retinal edema in 16 patients (51.51%). Conclusions: In all cases, the disease was self-limiting and resolved spontaneously without treatment. Therefore, this study confirms that ocular manifestations in dengue fever are varied and frequent.

Keywords

• Dengue
• Dengue virus
• Macular degeneration
• Vision disorders
• Eye infections
• viral