Ocular Manifestations of Sickle Cell Hemoglobinopathy: A Study in Tertiary Eye Care Centre of North Maharashtra (India)

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common genetic disease worldwide. The increase in life expectancy of SCD patients in recent years has led to the emergence of more complications of the disease, including ocular changes, which were uncommon in the past. SCD can affect virtually every vascular bed in the eye and can cause blindness in the advanced stages.Purpose: The present study was carried out to assess the incidence and prevalence of all ocular manifestations in SCD and to correlate with age and demographical parameters. Materials & Methods: The present prospective study was conducted at tertiary care center from June 2018 to June2019 and included 146 SCD patients including Sickle cell carriers/traits (SCT). A detailed comprehensive eye examination was performed to know the status of any ocular findings. Results:Most common peripheral retinal change seen was venous dilatation and tortuosity in 55.23% SCD and 29.5% of the SCT patients. The conjunctival signs were observed in 77.55% SCD and 27.2% of the SCT patients. Other complications such as iris atrophy, temporal discpallor, chronic maculopathy, neovascularisation, retinal detachment were rare and none of the patients had anterior chamber signs. Conclusion:In summary, present study documents higher prevalence of retinopathy along with some conjunctival signs in Indian SCD patients. In general, overall peripheral retinal changes are more common in SCD patients than in SCT subjects. Further, this study demonstrates that retinopathy contributes to the susceptibility for development of vision loss in SCD cases. It is therefore recommended that all patients must undergo ophthalmological examination at the diagnosis of SCD and follow-ups at regular intervals to prevent visual loss.