Optic disc drusen, angioid streaks, and mottled fundus in various combinations in a Sicilian family

Optic disk drusen in children

Optic disk drusen occur in 0.4% of children and consist of acellular intracellular and extracellular deposits that often become calcified over time. They are typically buried early in life and generally become superficial, and therefore visible, later in childhood, at the average age of 12 years. Their main clinical significance lies in the ability of optic disk drusen, particularly when buried, to simulate true optic disk edema. Misdiagnosing drusen as true disk edema may lead to an invasive and unnecessary workup for elevated intracranial pressure. Ancillary testing, including ultrasonography, fluorescein angiography, fundus autofluorescence, and optical coherence tomography, may aid in the correct diagnosis of optic disk drusen. Complications of optic disk drusen in children include visual field defects, hemorrhages, choroidal neovascular membrane, nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, and retinal vascular occlusions. Treatment options for these complications include ocular hypotensive agents for visual field defects and intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents for choroidal neovascular membranes. In most cases, however, children with optic disk drusen can be managed by observation with serial examinations and visual field testing once true optic disk edema has been excluded.

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum: a clinical, pathophysiological and genetic update including 11 novel ABCC6 mutations

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is an inherited systemic disease of connective tissue primarily affecting the skin, retina, and cardiovascular system. It is characterised pathologically by elastic fibre mineralisation and fragmentation (so called "elastorrhexia"), and clinically by high heterogeneity in age of onset and the extent and severity of organ system involvement. PXE was recently associated with mutations in the ABCC6 (ATP binding cassette subtype C number 6) gene. At least one ABCC6 mutation is found in about 80% of patients. These mutations are identifiable in most of the 31 ABCC6 exons and consist of missense, nonsense, frameshift mutations, or large deletions. No correlation between the nature or location of the mutations and phenotype severity has yet been established. Recent findings support exclusive recessive inheritance. The proposed prevalence of PXE is 1/25,000, but this is probably an underestimate. ABCC6 encodes the protein ABCC6 (also known as MRP6), a member of the large ATP dependent transmembrane transporter family that is expressed predominantly in the liver and kidneys, and only to a lesser extent in tissues affected by PXE. The physiological substrates of ABCC6 remain to be determined, but the current hypothesis is that PXE should be considered to be a metabolic disease with undetermined circulating molecules interacting with the synthesis, turnover, or maintenance of elastic fibres.