Cicatricial Conjunctival Inflammation With Trichiasis as the Presenting Feature of Wegener Granulomatosis.
Granulomatosis. Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. 22(1):69-71, January/February 2006.
Wegener Granulomatosis symptoms: According to Kanski, Wegener granulomatosis is mostly in males in their 40's with upper respiratory tract symptoms, joint pains, weakness, and tiredness.
Symptoms include sinus pain, discolored or bloody fluid from the nose, and, occasionally, nasal ulcers. A common sign of the disease is almost constant rhinorrhea ("runny nose") or other cold symptoms that do not respond to usual treatment
In the eyes people may develop conjunctivitis, scleritis, episcleritis, or a mass lesion behind the eye globe. Eye symptoms include redness, burning, or pain.
Wegener Granulomatosis responds well to systemic steroids and cyclophosphamide.
So, if you have an unexplained conjunctivitis and a patient with an runny nose that won't go away, consider Wegener Granulomatosis.
I find it interesting that you show conjunctivitis as one of the presenting markers of Wegener's Granulomatosis because that was my first symptom with the runny nose.
ReplyDeleteHowever I am not male... I am female. I was also 41 when I had my first crisis. In my experience, there are an equal amount of male and females who have this disease. Also patients as young as 9 and as old as 89 have been diagnosed with Wegener's. The majority of patients that I have met are in their 50's and 60's.
Thank you for this interesting pearl. I almost died from the initial onslaught of this disease because my opthalmalogist did not identify it before my kidneys failed.