Incidence and natural course of symptomatic central serous chorioretinopathy in pregnant women in a maternity hospital in Kuwait

Abstract

Purpose:To report the incidence, clinical features and natural course of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSR) in pregnant women in Kuwait.Materials and Methods:Patients were actively recruited from a private maternity hospital. Out of the 17,000 pregnant women who visited the antenatal care clinics (Al-Orf Hospital, Kuwait) over 3 years, 900 had visual complaints. Patients with visual complaints underwent complete ophthalmological assessment. Medical records of patients with CSR were reviewed, and a full clinical ophthalmological assessment was performed including measurement of best corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure, slit lamp biomicroscopy, dilated indirect ophthalmoscopy and Amsler grid screening, color and red free fundus photography and retinal optical coherence tomography. All patients were evaluated throughout the course of pregnancy and for 6 months after delivery.Results:Four patients had CSR among the 17,000 pregnant women reviewed over 3 years corresponding to an incidence of 0.008 % per year. Two patients (50%) had CSR with white subretinal exudates and 2 (50%) had no exudates. There was complete resolution in all patients (100%) within 3 months after delivery.Conclusions:In pregnant women, CSR can present with or without retinal exudates and completely resolves in either case. Further studies with a larger sample size are warranted to investigate the risk factors in pregnant women.

Comparison of subfoveal choroidal thickness in healthy pregnancy and pre-eclampsia

“…2,15,16 In this study, however, there was no significant increase in CT in healthy pregnant women. Thus, we suggest that unknown additional factors such as vascular hyperpermeability, increased body fluid, vascular dilation, decreased colloidal osmotic pressure and changes in prostaglandin levels induce hyperpermeability and lead to CSC in pregnant women.…”

Comparison of optical coherence tomography findings in males and females with acute central serous chorioretinopathy

“…In previous reports, it has been considered that CSCR in women was associated with subretinal precipitates and absence of PED or longer duration for development of PED [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. The absence of PED in OCT examinations in female cases as seen in our study is compatible with this association.…”

Ocular Changes During Pregnancy

“…It arises in 0.008% (4 of 17 000) women in the course of an otherwise unremarkable pregnancy (8). The high cortisol concentration during pregnancy is thought to be the main precipitant of this condition.…”