CASE REPORT
Corneal Toxicity Following Exposure to Asclepias Tuberosa
Lauge Hjorth Mikkelsen1, Hassan Hamoudi2, Cigdem Altuntas Gül2, Steffen Heegaard1, 2, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 11
First Page: 1
Last Page: 4
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-11-1
DOI: 10.2174/1874364101711010001
Article History:
Received Date: 07/07/2016Revision Received Date: 20/12/2016
Acceptance Date: 02/01/2017
Electronic publication date: 31/01/2017
Collection year: 2017
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Purpose:
To present a case of corneal toxicity following exposure to milky plant latex from Asclepias tuberosa.
Methods:
A 70-year-old female presented with blurred vision and pain in her left eye after handling an Ascepias tuberosa. Clinical examination revealed a corneal stromal oedema with small epithelial defects. The corneal endothelium was intact and folds in Descemets membrane were observed. The oedema was treated with chloramphenicol, dexamethasone and scopolamine.
Results:
The corneal oedema had appeared after corneal exposure to the plant, Asclepias tuberosa, whose latex contains cardenolides that inhibit the Na+/ K+-ATPase in the corneal endothelium. The oedema resolved after 96 hours. After nine months the best corrected visual acuity was 20/20.
Conclusion:
Corneal toxicity has previously been reported for plants of the Asclepias family. This is a rare case describing severe corneal toxicity caused by exposure to latex from Asclepias tuberosa. Handling of plants of the Asclepias family should be kept as a differential diagnosis in cases of acute corneal toxicity.
