This report highlights a case of a 60-year-old Chinese male presenting with severe bilateral retinopathy caused by an incidental finding of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). CML retinopathy is caused by hyperviscosity and toxin-mediated endothelial injury, which, by causing retinal ischemia, upregulates vascular endothelial growth factor and causes neovascularization. This ischemic angiogenic stimulus is also present in T2DM, manifesting as similar retinopathic changes present in CML. This case highlights the importance of ophthalmologists providing a thorough workup to investigate the underlying cause of unknown retinopathy.
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Mallick et al. (2024) studied this question.
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