Non-Diabetic Retinal Abnormalities in Chronic Pancreatitis

Abstract

To determine whether retinal abnormalities occur in patients with chronic pancreatitis, ophthalmoscopic and retinal-function evaluation was performed in 28 patients with chronic pancreatitis and 19 healthy subjects. The final threshold of dark adaptation was significantly increased 40 per cent (P<0.001) in patients with pancreatitis, whether or not they had steatorrhea. Patients with steatorrhea had a significant decrease of about 42 per cent (P<0.001) in the b-wave of the electroretinogram, a measure of both rod and cone function. Seven of the 28 patients complained of difficulty with night vision; six of these seven had morphologic lesions on ophthalmoscopic examination, confirmed by fluorescein angiography.