Central serous chorioretinopathy induced by corticosteroids

Abstract

Five patients were diagnosed as having central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) during systemic corticosteroid treatment based on medical records and fluorescein angiography. Twenty-eight previously reported corticosteroid-induced CSC cases in addition to these 5 were examined to clarify clinical differences between idiopathic CSC and corticosteroid-induced CSC. Nine previously reported cases of corticosteroid-induced multifocal posterior pigment epitheliopathy (MPPE) were also reviewed. The corticosteroid-induced CSC patients were older and less male-dominant. In MPPE, bilateral involvement was noted in most cases and females were dominant. We found two patient groups; in the short latency group, the onset of CSC occurred within 70 days of corticosteroid administration and in the prolonged latency group, more than 6 months after. The daily dose of prednisolone for the former usually exceeded 20 mg/day, in contrast to the latter, at less than 20 mg/day. Immunosuppressive drugs such as cyclophosphamide made it possible to diminish the onset daily dose.