Uveal effusion as a sign of myxoedema.

The only frequent extraocular abnormalities they found, in spite of fairly intense medical investigation, were a raised cerebrospinal fluid protein without pleocytosis and some patients with "rheumatic disorder". They reported seventeen cases, including one female. They drew attention to several previous papers reporting cases similar to their own. Stallard (I954) described six cases of "a peculiar type of retinal detachment, which is likely to involve the choroid also, which is annular, peripheral, and so dark in colour that it is sometimes misdiagnosed as a ring sarcoma of the choroid". His cases were all males between the ages of 30 and 6o and three of the six had bilateral disease. All had dark colouring of the hair and skin. No associated systemic or local disorder waspresent. Lewallen (1957) reported the case of a I03-year-old Negro with chemosis, exophthalmos, and unilateral retinal detachment without breaks. The fellow eye became similarly affected but both returned to normal in 4 months without treatment. Graham (I958) reported a case in which a 37-year-old woman presented a complete retinal detachment, ocular hypotony, shallow anterior chamber, and posterior synechiae. Enucleation was carried out for suspected melanoma and ocular examination showed total retinal detachment, choroidal detachment reaching the scleral spur, moderate uveal congestion, and markedly thickened sclera. A retinal tear was said to be present on one occasion but subsequently could never be found. In discussing this case, Davenport (I 958) described a female whose enucleated eye showed clhoroido-retinal detachment, congested uvea, and thick sclera, while the other eye displayed a low grade uveitis with annular choroidal detachment. Ridley (1958) also mentioned a uniocular patient with low-grade uveitis, hypotension, and anterior choroido-retinal detachment without visible retinal breaks. Rosen and Lyne (i 968) reported two cases of uveal effusion: one was a localized choroidal detachment secondary to scleritis in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis; the other developed unilateral peripheral annular choroidal detachment with no retinal detachment. Thus neither fits the specific description given by Schepens and Brockhurst. Reports of bilateral low-grade uveitis associated with retinal detachment have appeared in the literature (Duke-Elder, I966), but in the condition described by Schepens and