Cystoid macular edema associated with iridocorneal endothelial syndrome: a case report

BACKGROUND: Iridocorneal endothelial (ICE) syndrome occurs mainly in young and middle-aged women and typically presents as a unilateral disease characterized by abnormalities of the iris and corneal endothelium. While the ICE syndrome is known to be associated with glaucoma and bullous keratopathy, to our knowledge, only two cases of ICE syndrome complicated with cystoid macular edema (CME) have been reported to date. In this paper, we report a case of ICE syndrome complicated with CME treated at our institution. CASE PRESENTATION: The subject was a 51-year-old woman. In October 2013, she was examined by a primary care physician for blurred vision in her left eye. Dyscoria and abnormality of the corneal endothelium were observed, and the patient was diagnosed with ICE syndrome. In November of the same year, she was referred to our institution with a decrease in visual acuity and CME, both in her left eye. At initial examination, her best corrected decimal visual acuity was 1.0 (Snellen equivalent: 20/20) in the right eye and 0.5 (20/40) in the left eye. Intraocular pressure was 12 mmHg in both eyes. She was diagnosed with Cogan–Reese syndrome based on marked ectropion uveae, peripheral anterior synechia, and abnormalities of the corneal endothelium. Marked CME was observed on ophthalmoscopy and optical coherence tomography. A topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (nepafenac 0.1 %) was applied to the left eye four times daily from January 2014. Four weeks later, the CME had resolved and her visual acuity was 1.0 (20/20). CONCLUSION: While non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids did not appear to be effective in two previously reported cases of ICE syndrome complicated with CME, topical nepafenac was effective in this case. However, more such cases are needed before concluding that topical nepafenac is effective in this situation.