CONCENTRIC MACULAR RINGS SIGN IN COMBINED HAMARTOMA OF RETINA AND RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIUM.

PURPOSE: To describe two cases of concentric macular rings (CMR) sign in patients with combined hamartoma of retina and retinal pigment epithelium (CHRRPE). METHODS: History and clinical examination, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), and optic coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). RESULTS: The first patient was a 26-year-old woman with clinical diagnosis of Neurofibromatosis type 2. The Best-Corrected Visual Acuity (BCVA) was 20/25 in the right eye (OD) and 20/20 in the left eye (OS). She presented a subtle grayish lesion in the macular region of OD. On macular SD-OCT, there was a thickened and disorganized retina, suggestive of CHRRPE. In addition, at the parafoveal region, there was a dentate pattern in the outer plexiform layer (OPL) and Henle fiber layer (HFL) on cross-sectional SD-OCT. OCTA showed no foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in OD and Optos ultra-wide-field revealed CMR sign in this eye. The second patient was a 14-year-old boy, with diabetes mellitus type 1. His BCVA was 20/25 in OD and 20/20 in OS. He had a subtle whitish lesion in the macular region of OD, with SD-OCT findings suggestive of CHRRPE. Similar to the first case, there was a dentate pattern in the OPL and HFL, on SD-OCT. In OD, blue reflectance images exhibited the CMR sign, and OCTA showed absent FAZ. CONCLUSION: CHRRPE may be related to changes in the OPL and HFL interface and may present the CMR sign.

Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1 Is Increased in Chagasic Cardiomyopathy.

Chagas disease (CD) mainly conveys stroke risk through structural cardiac disease. However, stroke and cognitive impairment are seen in CD independently of cardiac disease severity. Chronic inflammation may be an explanation for this association, because inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of acute ischemic stroke and dementia. In the present study, we selected five candidate biomarkers for Chagas disease: interleukin-6, membrane metalloproteinase-9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP1), orosomucoid, and neprilysin. We sought to determine if mean levels of proinflammatory biomarkers are higher in patients with heart failure (HF) associated with Chagas disease when compared with other etiologies of HF. Patients were consecutively enrolled from subspecialty HF outpatient clinics at two university-based hospitals. Serum biomarker levels from blood samples were analyzed by ELISA. Severity of HF on echocardiography was worse in non-CD when compared with CD patients. No significant difference was observed in the levels of candidate biomarkers between the CD and non-CD groups. We found a significantly 2.2 ng/mL higher level of TIMP1 in CD when compared with non-CD patients with HF after adjustment for age and gender (95% confidence interval = 0.1 to 4.5, P = 0.037). In patients with heart failure, serum TIMP1 is increased in Chagas patients despite a lower myocardial disease severity on echocardiography when compared with non-Chagas patients. TIMP1 is probably one of multiple mediators of inflammatory injury.