European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

STARGARDT’S DISEASE AND LATENT AUTOIMMUNE DIABETES IN ADULT (LADA): AN UNUSUAL ASSOCIATION AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Basavaraj G. S., *Riddhi Dasgupta, Thomas V. Paul, Nihal Thomas

ABSTRACT

Stargardt’s disease(STGD) is a rare condition leading to loss of visual acuity in patients in their first and second decades of life. Though multiple etiopathogenetic mechanisms have been described, its’ association with autoimmune young –onset diabetes mellitus have been sparsely reported. In this article, we present a case of 35 year old male with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults(LADA) for 5 years with progressive central vision loss not corrected by glasses. His uncorrected vision was 6/12 bilaterally, and fundus examination including Optical Coherence Tomography and fluorescein angiography confirmed the clinical diagnosis of STGD, showing typical retinal pigment epithelial atrophy with “Bronze Beaten” appearance and Bull’s eye pattern without clinical signs of Diabetic retinopathy were seen. Our clinical case is the first such depicting the association between LADA and Stargardt’s disease, with significant clinical implications. Further our case report confirms and reiterates the finding that degenerative retinal diseases represent a protective factor against the development of diabetic microangiopathy.

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