Case Series of Neuroretinitis in Korea

Background: To present the clinical characteristics of neuroretinitis in Korea.

Methods: Twelve patients with neuroretinitis between January 2009 and September 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Neuroretinitis was diagnosed based on fundus findings, optical coherence tomography, and fluorescein angiography. The serological findings of each patient were reviewed.

Results: Fifteen eyes of 12 patients (9 male and 3 female), with a mean age of 46.0 ± 10.7 years were included. Of the nine patients who underwent serological testing for Toxocara antibodies, six (66.6%) were positive. One patient had high titers of Toxoplasma immunoglobulins M and G. One patient diagnosed with dengue fever was suspected to have neuroretinitis in both eyes. There were no related abnormalities in the serological findings in four patients (33.3%) out of 12 patients. There were no suspected cases of cat-scratch disease. The six patients who were positive for Toxocara antibodies were older (mean age: 54.5 ± 9.1 years) than the others (mean age: 37.5 ± 4.4 years, p = 0.004). The four patients without any abnormal serological findings were relatively younger (mean age: 35.7 ± 3.0 years) than the other 8 patients (mean age: 51.1 ± 10.1 years, p = 0.008).

Conclusions: Two-thirds of neuroretinitis patients were seropositive for Toxocara in the current cohort from Koreans. Causative factors in cases of neuroretinitis may vary according to age and region.