‘Eye of Sauron’: Man’s strange eyes linked to rare genetic condition

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Image: NEJM

Doctors in Texas came face to face with a dark, spine-tingling eye that looked rimmed by flames—or, as they calmly described it in a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine: an eye with “circumferential spoke-like iris transillumination defects.”

But shining a light into both of his eyes, the doctors saw a fiery ring around his irises—the colorful muscular structure that controls the diameter of the pupil, thus controlling the amount of light that gets to the retina. The eerie glow indicated that pigment in his irises had sloughed off, allowing light to pass through.

At this point, the doctors diagnosed him with a rare genetic condition called pigment dispersion syndrome. According to the National Institutes of Health, the syndrome occurs when pigment granules that usually stick to the backside of the iris flake off into the clear, watery fluid that bathes the front of the eye. Let loose, the pigments can go on to clog up the eye’s drainage system, which then leads to increased pressure in the eye—as the man was experiencing.

In the man’s case, doctors performed a laser procedure to ease his eyes’ drainage and pressure.

Read full, original post: Rare genetic condition gives man Eye of Sauron look

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