Evaluation of Vitreous Body Integrity in Retinitis Pigmentosa by Vitreous Fluorophotometry

We performed vitreous fluorophotometry on 23 eyes of 15 normal individuals and on 29 eyes of 15 patients with retinitis pigmentosa one hour after the systemic administration of sodium fluorescein. The concentration gradient of fluorescein in the posterior vitreous was evaluated from the results of the testing. Patients with retinitis pigmentosa showed a significantly flat gradient compared with normal subjects, implying that fluorescein is distributed more rapidly in the vitreous body of the patients. It is suggested that patients with retinitis pigmentosa have an abnormal vitreous gel structure that causes more rapid distribution of fluorescein. If verified, this would indicate that vitreous fluorophotometry could be useful to evaluate changes in the integrity of the vitreous body in vivo.