Corneal ectasia, cerulean (blue dot) cataract with acute hydrops in a child with Down's syndrome and hypothyroidism - a rare presentation.

Down's syndrome or trisomy 21 is a genetic disorder caused by presence of all or a part of a third copy of chromosome 21. Keratoconus occurs in up to 15% of the adult population with Down's syndrome. There is a close consortium between trisomy 21 and keratoconus (a conical ectatic protrusion of the cornea), and children with Down's syndrome are also susceptible to developing thyroid disease, including hypothyroidism and thyrotoxicosis with exophthalmos. The authors describe a case report on acute corneal hydrops with congenital cerulean cataract in a patient with Down's syndrome with hypothyroidism having bilateral advanced keratoconus. As per the detailed literature review, this is the first case of Down's syndrome with hypothyroidism presenting with acute corneal hydrops.

Pythium insidiosum keratitis - A review.

Pythium insidiosum is an oomycete and is also called "parafungus" as it closely mimics fungal keratitis. The last decade saw an unprecedented surge in Pythium keratitis cases, especially from Asia and India, probably due to growing research on the microorganism and improved diagnostic and treatment modalities. The clinical features such as subepithelial infiltrate, cotton wool-like fluffy stromal infiltrate, satellite lesions, corneal perforation, endoexudates, and anterior chamber hypopyon closely resemble fungus. The classical clinical features of Pythium that distinguish it from other microorganisms are reticular dots, tentacular projections, peripheral furrowing, and early limbal spread, which require a high index of clinical suspicion. Pythium also exhibits morphological and microbiological resemblance to fungus on routine smearing, revealing perpendicular or obtuse septate or aseptate branching hyphae. Culture on blood agar or any other nutritional agar is the gold standard for diagnosis. It grows as cream-colored white colonies with zoospores formation, further confirmed using the leaf incarnation method. Due to limited laboratory diagnostic modalities and delayed growth on culture, there was a recent shift toward various molecular diagnostic modalities such as polymerase chain reaction, confocal microscopy, ELISA, and immunodiffusion. As corneal scraping (10% KOH, Gram) reveals fungal hyphae, antifungals are started before the culture results are available. Recent in vitro molecular studies have suggested antibacterials as the first-line drugs in the form of 0.2% linezolid and 1% azithromycin. Early therapeutic keratoplasty is warranted in nonresolving cases. This review aims to describe the epidemiology, clinical features, laboratory and molecular diagnosis, and treatment of Pythium insidiosum keratitis.

Traumatic intralenticular abscess-What is so different?

Intralenticular abscess is a very rare entity that occurs after trauma, cataract surgeries, or as metastatic infection. It is important to pinpoint this sequestrated infection and to evacuate the abscess surgically to prevent chronic endophthalmitis. In this report, we describe a case of posttraumatic lenticular abscess highlighting the characteristic clinical features and their management. Additionally, here we report the first time use of Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography as a diagnostic tool in delineating lens abscess from traumatic cataract which further guide the management and prognosis of the case. Traumatic intralenticular abscess (TILA)-What is so different?