The clinical characteristics and prognosis of acute zonal occult outer retinopathy.

PURPOSE: This prospective observational case series study aimed to observe the clinical characteristics of acute zonal occult outer retinopathy (AZOOR) and its prognosis in Chinese Han patients.

METHODS: Six eyes of 5 female patients diagnosed with AZOOR were followed up for 4 months to observe the natural disease course. All enrolled subjects underwent a series of ocular examinations at the onset and each return visit, including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), split lamp microscopy, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), perimetry, multifocal electroretinogram and fundus fluorescein angiography.

RESULTS: Over the follow-up, all enrolled patients recovered on BCVA, perimetry and OCT in different degrees. Among them, one patient recovered completely since the ocular examination results returned to normal.

CONCLUSION: AZOOR is a rare ocular disorder in Chinese population. Our results demonstrated that visual functions of enrolled patients significantly improved spontaneously, indicating that Chinese female Han patients with AZOOR have good visual outcomes during the follow-up period without any specific managements.