Changes at the periphery of a lesion in necrotising scleritis: anterior segment fluorescein angiography correlated with electron microscopy.

Anterior segment fluorescein angiography in scleral disease reveals highly characteristic changes in the vasculature of the anterior segment associated with necrotising scleritis. The vaso-obliterative changes discovered in this investigation have been correlated with the histopathology in a patient who had to have tissue replaced. Light and electron microscopy of scleral tissue excised from sites of vascular closure detected by fluorescein angiography peripheral to the scleral defect revealed pathological changes in the absence of inflammatory cell infiltration. These changes included vascular stasis, partial vaso-obliteration, and fibroblastic transformation of scleral fibrocytes in association with intra- and extracellular degradation of the collagenous component of the matrix.