The Pathology of Chloroquine Retinopathy

The clinical manifestations of chloroquine retinopathy have been well documented1since Hobbs2called our attention to this entity in 1959. To date, there have been approximately 50 cases reported in the world literature. Chloroquine retinopathy has not been produced in experimental animals, and the ocular pathology in humans has never been described. Thus, the nature and exact location of the pathology are still unknown. In 1957, Cambiaggi3reported a case of an unusual macular lesion which was not recognized as due to chloroquine retinopathy at that time. This patient died the following year from systemic lupus erythematosus, and pathologic examination of the eyes was performed. A brief and nonspecific reference to this examination was made by Rebello.4 Recent re-examination of the ocular pathology in this patient has shown that the changes present are compatible with a primary retinopathy and correlate, to a large degree, with the