AUTHOR=Bansal Reema , Markan Ashish , Gautam Nitin , Guru Rashmi Ranjan , Lakshmi P. V. M. , Katoch Deeksha , Agarwal Aniruddha , Singh Mini P. , Suri Vikas , Mohindra Ritin , Sahni Neeru , Bhalla Ashish , Malhotra Pankaj , Gupta Vishali , Puri G. D.
TITLE=Retinal Involvement in COVID-19: Results From a Prospective Retina Screening Program in the Acute and Convalescent Phase
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine
VOLUME=8
YEAR=2021
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.681942
DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.681942
ISSN=2296-858X
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.