Christine L. Shen, MD

A 57-year-old Cambodian man with a medical history of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and an unknown cardiac procedure presented with 2 weeks of acute blurry vision in the left eye. He reported having the flu 2 weeks prior with severe coughing. He had no eye pain or redness. He had no history of eye trauma or eye surgery. His medications included aspirin, atorvastatin, multiple antihypertensives and warfarin. He had no known family history of eye disease. He was a former cigarette smoker but did not drink alcohol or use illicit drugs.

A 55-year-old Chinese woman with no known medical history was transferred to Tufts Medical Center with bilateral decreased vision. She had not seen a physician in 20 years. However, she reported recurrent episodes of redness in both eyes over the last 2 years that seemed to correlate with consuming shellfish. She treated these episodes with artificial tears. About 3 months ago, she started taking Chinese herbal medicine by mouth for “general inflammation.” Around that time, she noticed gradual loss of vision in the left eye; on presentation, she could only see shadows and movement. About 1 week prior, she also started to have loss of vision in the right eye, which prompted her to seek care.

A 40-year-old woman with a medical history of acute myeloid leukemia treated with bone marrow transplant, complicated by ocular graft-versus-host disease and penetrating keratoplasty in the right eye, urgently presented to the New England Eye Center at Tufts Medical Center due to left ocular pain, redness and photophobia.