Intraocular lacrimal gland choristoma diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration biopsy

Recurrent lacrimal gland choristoma of the ciliary body in an infant mimicking a medulloepithelioma

PURPOSE

Choristoma is a congenital tumor made up of ectopic normal tissue. Different histopathologic subtypes have been described. Among them, lacrimal gland choristoma is found mainly in infants and can affect the iris, the ciliary body, or the choroid and epibulbar region. Our aims were to report a case of lacrimal gland choristoma, review the published cases, and present the main differential diagnoses.

METHODS

A local resection of a limited mass of the ciliary body was performed on a 12-month-old girl who had a 6-month history of visual loss, leukocoria, and pupillary deformation.

RESULTS

Histopathologically, we observed a well-demarcated lesion involved under the epithelium of the ciliary body. It was composed of acini delineated by a well-differentiated epithelium without atypia and mitotic figures. Immunohistochemical analyses confirmed the lacrimal nature with the expression of epithelial markers (cytokeratin 7 positive and cytokeratin 20 negative) and neuron-specific enolase without immunoreactivity for other neuronal markers. Two years later, a local recurrence appeared and was resected. It showed nearly the same histopathologic features.

CONCLUSIONS

Lacrimal gland choristoma is a very rare lesion of the infant. Diagnosis is based on a histopathologic analysis with immunohistochemical studies to exclude other differential diagnoses such as a more common malignant tumor in childhood, medulloepithelioma. This observation shows an atypical clinical presentation of this benign lesion characterized by local recurrences.

Lacrimal gland choristoma in a preterm infant, presenting with spontaneous hyphema and increased intraocular pressure

We report a case of intraocular lacrimal gland choristoma presenting very early in a preterm infant with hyphema, a mass lesion and raised intraocular pressure. Enucleation of the involved eye, which is the treatment in most cases, was performed and prosthesis was fitted successfully. An interesting additional finding in our patient was a choroidal defect, not reported to date with other cases in the literature.

Bilateral intraocular glandular choristomas in a Thoroughbred foal

Intraocular choristomas are rare anomalies in domestic animals and are often associated with multiple ocular malformations. A Thoroughbred foal presented for ocular abnormalities and was diagnosed with microphthalmia, corneal dermoids, severe anterior segment dysgenesis (including glandular choristomas), aphakia, retinal dysplasia, and optic nerve hypoplasia. Morphological, histochemical, and immunohistochemical comparisons were made between ocular choristomatous tissues from this foal and lacrimal gland, third eyelid gland, nasopharynx, trachea, and lacrimal sac/nasolacrimal duct from normal horses. Morphologically the choristomatous tissues (glands and epithelium lining the anterior segment) were most similar to the lacrimal sac. Histochemistry of glandular components found the glands associated with the lacrimal sac/nasolacrimal duct to be serous, as was the glandular intraocular choristomas. Our findings suggest that the origin of intraocular glandular choristomas in this case is from the lacrimal sac.