Bilateral Corneal Ghost Vessels in an Otherwise Healthy Child

Hossein Aghaei; Acieh  Es’haghi; Shirin Rafatnia; Sanam Alilou

doi:10.18502/crcp.v6i3.7127

Hossein Aghaei Eye Research Center, The Five Senses Institute, Rassoul Akram Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Acieh Es’haghi Eye Research Center, The Five Senses Institute, Rassoul Akram Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Shirin Rafatnia Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Sanam Alilou Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/crcp.v6i3.7127

Keywords: Corneal Neovascularization; Corneal Angiogenesis; Angioblast; Antiangiogenic agents

Abstract

We report a rare case of bilateral corneal ghost vessels in a 6–year-old child with an unremarkable past ocular and past medical history. This study was a single observational case report. A 6-year-old girl was referred to our clinic for further evaluation, due to suboptimal visual acuity in both eyes. Her past medical and ocular history revealed no systemic, inflammatory, infectious, or degenerative disorders. Slit-lamp examination revealed regressed blood vessels (“ghost vessels”) in the anterior and mid-corneal stroma as the only pathologic finding. Confocal scanning microscopy of both corneas demonstrated scattered branching railroad-shaped ghost vessels at the level of the middle and anterior stroma. Complete systemic workup was performed for the patient. No identifiable risk factor for the development of corneal vascularization was found. According to our findings, we assume that in our patient, vasculogenesis occurred due to angioblast invasion to the presumptive cornea due to disequilibrium in mechanisms involved in vascular patterning during embryonic development.