Objective  To observe the clinical and multimodel image features in patients of acute macular neuroretinopathy (AMN) associated with COVID-19. Methods Clinical data and multimodal imaging results in 12 patients (24 eyes) of AMN associated with COVID-19 which were diagnosed in our Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Hospital of The Army Medical University ranging from December 2022 to January 2023 were included. All patients were examined by best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), color fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), OCT angiography (OCTA), visual field tests, high-resolution computed tomography of the lungs and inflammation-related laboratory tests. After diagnosis, patients were reveived methylcobalamin and Ginaton therapy, 6 patients receiced intravenous dripping of dexamethasone. The follow-up time of this study was 4 weeks. Results There were 1 male (2 eyes) and 11 females (22 eyes), with the mean age of (29.00±5.17) years. For all cases, decreased vision presented 1 to 2 days after patients being suffered from several flu-like symptoms of COVID-19. Ten eyes in 5 patients were at the acute phrase of AMN, which the vision decrease occurred 1-5 days after they were diagnosed with COVID-19; 14 eyes in 7 patients were at the progressive stage of AMN, which they were diagnosed with COVID-19 for more than 5 days. The BCVA of patients were 0.02-0.9, in company with one or more central/pericentral scotoma. Fundus ophthalmoscopy revealed reddish-brown lesion around macula, IR imaging demonstrated localized areas of hypo-shape lesions in the macula. For 16 eyes, their OCTA revealed a decreased density of blood flow in the deep layer of retinal capillary plexus, and OCT revealed that high reflex bands existed in the outer nuclear layer (ONL) and outer plexiform layer of the retina at the acute phrase of AMN, in accompany with hypo-reflection in ellipsoid zone (EZ) and interdigitation zone (IZ); for retina at the progressive stage of AMN, ONL became thinner in some cases and the continuation interruption occurred in EZ and IZ. For en-face OCT, high reflex bands with clear edges existed in the ONL and EZ layer of the retina at the acute phrase of AMN, but no high reflex bands existed in the ONL and EZ layers of the retina at the progressive stage of AMN. Instead, hypo-reflection with similar shape occurred in the EZ and IZ layers at the progressive stage of AMN. During treatment, 5 patients at the acute phrase reported a shrinking central scotomas and raised BCVA, otherwise the BCVA of 7 patients at the progressive stage changed slightly. For 10 eyes at the acute phrase of AMN, OCT revealed that the high reflex bands of ONL and OPL missed within 1 week. En-face OCT revealed the hyper-reflection in the ONL and EZ layers of retina in the acute phrase of AMN receded within 1 week, but hypo-reflection of ONL and EZ still presented. Conclusions For AMN associated with COVID-19, IR imaging demonstrated localized areas of hypo-shape lesions in the macula. OCT revealed high reflex bands in ONL and OPL of the retina at the acute phrase of AMN, but hypo-reflection of ONL and EZ still presented. The continuation interruption occurred in EZ and IZ at the progressive phrase. En-face OCT revealed hyper-reflection in ONL and EZ of the retina at the acute phrase which receded within 1 week, and hypo-reflection in EZ and IZ of the retina presented at all phrases during AMN progression.

Citation： Zhang Li, Liu Yuqi, Yuan Rongdi. Clinical and multimodel image features in patients of acute macular neuroretinopathy associated with COVID-19. Chinese Journal of Ocular Fundus Diseases, 2023, 39(3): 208-213. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.cn511434-20230117-00029 Copy