Lipid keratopathy and atheroma.

THE purpose of the preselnt paper is to point out certain similarities in fatty plaques of the cornea aiid of blood vessels, both in manl anid ini hypercholesteremic rab)bits, and to suggest a commoim pathogenesis. The following resume is based onl a (clinieopathologic study of approximately a dozen cases of lipid plaques ill the humiiani cornea, approximately the sanme number ill the rabbit cornea, and a pathologic stufdy of atlheromiiata ini mail and in the experimental animiial.* The fatty plaque in time iunimanil corniea is of a sI)ecific type and comprises a separate enitity. It develops, ofteii precipitously, ini or adjacemit to anl area of abnormal vascularity. The fat may appear during the stage of neovaseulogenesis in association with an active keratitis, or it may develop ini ail otherwise white and quiet eye, years after the keratitis. Ill the former case the fat is apt to assume a fan,-shaped distribution in advance of the vaseular arcade, while ill the latter case it is likely to be disk-shaped and situated ill the imnmediate area of the blood vessels (figs. 1 and 2). Moreover it is usually reversible when it occurs in a swolleni coriiea, that is, during anl active keratitis, whereas it is usually permanent and stationary when it occurs ini a ('ompact cornea. Although associated with abnormal vascularity, the development of the fatty plaque is not necessarily associated with reactivation of the iniitial iniflamii-