The clinical characteristics and imaging findings of morning glory syndrome

Summary

To investigate the features of CT, ultrasonography and fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) of morning glory syndrome, the data on CT, A/B-scan ultrasonography and fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) were retrospectively analyzed in 8 cases of morning glory syndrome (MGS). Among those cases, 6 were examined with CT, 4 with FFA and 8 with A/B-scan ultrasonography. Results showed that the characteristics of CT, A/B-scan ultrasonography and FFA in MGS included: (1) The attachment spot of optic nerve became thin and vitreous body protruded to the posterior wall of eyeball with a spherical shape on CT image; (2) in the early period of FFA, hypofluorescence appeared on the optic, the abnormal arteriae and veins around the optic papilla were displayed clearly and in the late period, optic disc was stained with fluorescein; (3) on B-scan ultrasonogram, the vitreous cavity extended to the posterior pole and optic papilla, and projected to the basal part of muscle cones and thus the posterior part of vitreous cavity looked like an upside-down bottleneck. Sometimes the echogenic band of retinal detachment could also be seen. On A-scan ultrasonogram, both vitreous cavity and bottleneck showed no ultrasonic echoes and presented a base line without any evident wave crest. It is concluded that CT, A /B-scan ultrasonography and FFA could show the imageological features of MGS from different aspects, which helps clinicians to differentiate it from other diseases such as optic disc coloboma. CT and A /B-scan ultrasonography, in particular, are considered to be reliable imageological methods for the accurate diagnosis of MGS and are superior to the traditional techniques.