Retinal Involvement in COVID-19: Results From a Prospective Retina Screening Program in the Acute and Convalescent Phase.

Abstract

Objective: To detect retinal involvement in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in acute and convalescent phase by their fundus screening. Methods: In a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study (July-November 2020), 235 patients (142 acute and 93 convalescent phase) underwent fundus screening in a tertiary care center in North India. For convalescent phase, "hospitalized" patients (73) were screened at least 2 weeks after hospital discharge, and "home-isolated" patients (20) were screened 17 days after symptom onset/COVID-19 testing. Results: None in acute phase showed any retinal lesion that could be attributed exclusively to COVID-19. Five patients (5.38%) in convalescent phase had cotton wool spots (CWSs) with/without retinal hemorrhage, with no other retinal finding, and no visual symptoms, seen at a median of 30 days from COVID-19 diagnosis. Conclusions: CWSs (and retinal hemorrhages) were an incidental finding in COVID-19, detected only in the convalescent phase. These patients were much older (median age = 69 years) than the average age of our sample and had systemic comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, etc.). We propose the term "COVID-19 retinopathy" to denote the presence of CWSs at the posterior pole, occasionally associated with intraretinal hemorrhages, in the absence of ocular inflammation in patients with a history of COVID-19 disease.

• Authors: Reema Bansal, Ashish Markan, Nitin Gautam, Rashmi Ranjan Guru, P V M Lakshmi, Deeksha Katoch, Aniruddha Agarwal, Mini P Singh, Vikas Suri, Ritin Mohindra, Neeru Sahni, Ashish Bhalla, Pankaj Malhotra, Vishali Gupta, G D Puri
• Journal: Frontiers in medicine (Front Med (Lausanne)) Vol. 8 Pg. 681942 ( 2021) ISSN: 2296-858X [Print] Switzerland
• PMID: 34249972 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2021 Bansal, Markan, Gautam, Guru, Lakshmi, Katoch, Agarwal, Singh, Suri, Mohindra, Sahni, Bhalla, Malhotra, Gupta and Puri.