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Examinations of 35 patients hospitalized after long ineffective antituberculous therapy on an outpatient basis have revealed serous detachment of pigmented epithelium or neuroepithelium of the retina in 17, hemorrhagic detachment of pigmented epithelium and neuroepithelium in 12, and residual symptoms of these conditions with macular dystrophy signs in 6 of these patients. The absence of chorioretinal foci that are characteristic of tuberculous inflammation of ocular internal membranes, absence of focal reactions in tuberculin diagnosis and no therapeutic effect in antituberculous therapy evidenced a nontuberculous origin of the disease. Fluorescent angiographic examination of the fundus oculi has confirmed the clinical diagnosis of central serous choroidopathy in 18 of 23 cases. The author emphasizes a nontuberculous etiology of central serous choroidopathy and suggests that three stages be distinguished in the clinical picture of this condition: serous, hemorrhagic and dystrophic.

The etiology of peripapillary choriopathy (so-called geographic serpiginous choroiditis) is still unknown. This condition should be differentiated from tuberculous chorioretinitis because both abnormalities are characterized by a prolonged chronic course with involvement of the choroid and retina in young and middle-aged patients. The present study analyzes the results of a follow-up of 32 patients with peripapillary choriopathy; before these patients were admitted to hospital, ocular tuberculosis was diagnosed in 19 and suspected in 13 of them by local specialists. The authors came to a conclusion that the major differential diagnostic criteria here should be specific features of the ophthalmoscopic picture and of fluorescent angiograms of the fundus oculi, as well as the results of tuberculin diagnosis and tentative therapy.