Background: A vortex vein varix occurs when the vortex vein ampulla expands prominently. Sometimes, it appears similar to other choroidal tumors ophthalmoscopically, which makes differential diagnosis important. In recent years, reports of cases of choroidal tumors observed using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) have increased; these reports state that SS-OCT is useful for differential diagnosis and growth-related follow-up of choroidal tumors. However, no reports have described the use of SS-OCT to image a vortex vein varix. We report two cases of vortex vein varices that were observed using SS-OCT.
Cases: Two female patients, aged 59 and 65 years, were found to have dark brown protrusive lesion in the choroid and were diagnosed as vortex vein varices based on various examination results. SS-OCT showed hyporeflective, internally uniform, and smooth choroidal masses similar to choroidal vessels. Furthermore, moderately reflective partitions were observed within the masses, and oval luminal structures appeared to be adjacent to each other.
Conclusions: Using SS-OCT, it was confirmed in two cases that vortex vein varices corresponded to a bundle of expanded choroidal vessels. These findings were different from those of previous reports on SS-OCT findings of other choroidal tumors.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi (J Jpn Ophthalmol Soc) 122: 319-322, 2018.