Título / Title

ANGIOID STREAKS: A QUIET DISEASE

Introdução / Purpose

Angioid streaks are fragilities of the Bruch's membrane associated with some diseases, like elastic pseudoxantoma, Paget's disease, usually asymptomatic, leading to visual loss only when complications appear.

Material e Método / Methods

Case report

Resultados / Results

A 38-year-old male, in his first ophthalmologic appointment, complained of loss of vision on the right eye about a year ago. Denied other symptoms, illness or ophthalmologic surgeries. At examination, he presented best corrected visual acuity on the right eye lower than 0,05 and 1,0 on the left eye. Following through with the exam, everything was normal, except the fundoscopy. At the fundoscopy, he had irregular brown-reddish bands, irradiating from the optic nerve in both eyes, and an area of macular neovascularization at the right eye. An optical coherence tomography and an angiofluoresceinography confirmed the diagnosis of angioid streaks and a neovascular membrane at macular area on the right eye. The patient had no longer indication of any surgical procedure due to time of loss of acuity and was oriented to an annual checkup to prevent the other eye.

Discussão e Conclusões / Conclusion

Angioid streaks are alterations that affects Bruch’s membrane. Usually are bilateral, asymmetric and assymptomatic. Presents as irregular brown-reddish bands that come from the optic nerve and are deeper than retinal vessels. The most common complication and cause of lost of vision is the formation of neovascular membranes near the macular area. This disease is associated with some disorders, being the most common the elastic pseudoxantoma, however the patient had no criteria. There are no preventive treatments and due to the asymptomatic presentation, most cases, when discovered, are no longer favorable to any treatment indication, which leads to a poor prognostic in general. This case illustrates the value of routine ophthalmologic exam as detection of serious ocular diseases in time to prevent irreversible damages.

Palavras Chave

Angioid streaks; neovascular membrane; prevention