Abstract

A study of 50 patients evaluated hydroxychloroquine toxicity using ocular examination, Humphrey visual field perimetry, and SD OCT. The patients were split into two groups.Patients in Group I had no obvious alterations in the macula (31 patients) whereas patients in Group II had noticeable abnormalities in the macula and/or perimetry (19 individuals).OCT was used to assess and compare the central subfield thickness, parafoveal and perifoveal retinal thickness in all quadrants. On SD OCT, three individuals with severe toxicity were observed to have considerable outer retina damage in the macula. Four patients with early HCQ poisoning with HVF 10-2 perifoveal abnormalities had loss of the perifoveal photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment (IS/OS) junction with intact outer retina right underneath the fovea,the "flying saucer" sign.There were higher number of eyes without thinning of the macula in Group I patients (P < 0.001).More patients in Group-II had perifoveal thinning inferiorly.