Proptosis as a manifestation of acute myeloid leukaemia

Orbital or subconjunctival infiltration occurs frequently in acute and chronic lymphatic leukaemia, but only rarely in myelogenous leukaemia (Chatterjee and Sen, I 960). Chloroma, an atypical form of myeloblastic leukaemia, often manifests itself as a localized mass in the orbital periosteum, and the proptosis produced in such cases may be the first sign of the disease (Goodman and Iverson, I946). It is estimated that two-thirds of patients with myeloid leukaemia present with some blurring of vision and accompanying fundus changes. Although orbital infiltration in myelogenous leukaemia certainly occurs (Consul, Kulshrestha, and Mehortra, I967; Crombie, I967; Reese and Guy, 1933; Mortada, 1963; Gupta, Agarwal, and Pratab, 1970; Mathur, Gupta, Nema, and Katiyar, 1970), it is not a frequent manifestation, and the two cases reported below are therefore of interest.