BULL'S EYE MACULOPATHY POSSIBLY DUE TO IRON OVERLOAD IN A CHILD WITH THALASSEMIA MAJOR: A CASE OF POSSIBLE "FERRITIN RETINOPATHY".

PURPOSE: To report a case of bull's eye maculopathy probably caused by iron overload in a child with thalassemia major.

METHODS: Case report.

RESULTS: A 6-year-old girl with thalassemia major who was on chronic multiple blood transfusions since 2 years of age presented with blurred vision in both eyes for 2 months. Blood reports showed very high serum ferritin levels in the range 400 to 2,250 ng/mL (checked every 3 months) since 4 years of age. She was on oral iron chelator deferasirox for 2 years, which was stopped a month ago. Fundus examination of both eyes showed a characteristic bull's eye macula with a purplish hue in the outer ring probably due to iron deposition. The center of the bull's eye had a beaten bronze appearance.

CONCLUSION: Careful history-taking is important in children with bull's eye maculopathy because all such retinopathies need not be hereditary fundus dystrophies. Further progression can be arrested by identifying and removing the cause vision loss.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. Thek work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.