Hi Jacques. First off, I love the name you’ve picked. It made me smile, anyway.
I’m afraid I don’t have an answer, but I’ve noticed the same thing happening with my dad - his eyes are dark brown, yet lately I’ve noticed that his eyes are lightening towards the blue spectrum. He’s 59. Perhaps it’s age-related, meaning that it’s a natural occurrence for darkly pigmented eyes to lighten as one ages? I doubt in my father’s case that it’s cataracts - he gets his eyes checked frequently (as his eyesight’s never been great).
I believe you are describing the so-called “arcus senilis”. This refers to a deposition of fats at and around the junction of the cornea and iris. In people younger than about age 40 to 50, it can indicate high cholesterol. But, by age 57, it is a very common finding in perfectly healthy people. Although the results of most studies are skewed by preferentially including people with symptoms or signs of coronary disease, a reasonable figure is that about 50 percent of people over age 50 have an arcus. I, personally, would add that by age 80, the finding seems essentially ubiquitous.
Although the pcitures I link to show a completely circumferential arcus, it is, in fact, more common to have an incomplete band, with the top and bottom segments most likely to be present.
First of all, I am not a doctor, but what you describe could be one of any number of things, such as other posters have mentioned. Go to an ophthamologist, it might also be cataracts. Make sure it’s benign, please?
Appreciate your concern and good sense, but it’s probably easier (and less expensive) for Jacques to take a peek at the pictures I linked to and then decide.
BTW, what he describes really doesn’t sound anything at all like cataracts (which make themselves known through visual impairment and not by the appearance of the rim of the iris).
Be that as it may, this is a potential vision problem, and it’s best to have it looked at by someone who deals with such things professionaly. None of us here (even the physicians amongst us) can really make any kind of judgement call with regards to this, because we can’t actually see him, and don’t know his family history.
This is akin to someone asking “I have these creases around my mouth when I smile now that I turned 50, they weren’t there when I was 20” and a physician answering “They are probably wrinkles” and another person pipping in to say that “Be careful, it may represent malignant melanoma.”
Look at the pictures. It is probably arcus senilis. It is an incredibly common thing. If it doesn’t look like that, then it may be something else. Wilson’s disease is uncommon because he ain’t complaining of liver failure, although it could be a Kayser-Fleischer ring. Cataracts are less so; by the time he noticed opacity in the mirror, he would probably be highly visually impaired in that eye.
If it isn’t arcus, I’d guess a pterigium or neovascularization of the iris; limbal girdle of Voight or keratoconus causing corneal sclerosis or melanoma of the iris would be less common (and perhaps more severe) things.
You’d guess, but you do not know for certain, nor are you a physician of that nature. I see no pictures of the OPs eyes either. How would you feel, if it wasn’t “just aging” and he really did need to be treated for whatever it is early? It might be aging, it might not. None of us can truly say, can we? Let the professional who has examined him decide, that is as it should be! At the least he should speak with his regular physician to see if he needs to see a specialist.
Thanks. I will freely admit that it was my wife’s contribution. She’s an optometrist. And she yelled at me for misspelling it, too.
BTW, matched Categorical IM at Hopkins today. The Osler Marine tour of duty begins with boot camp on June 22 and deployment July 1. Look out for me if you get sick in Baltimore in July!
Zabali, I truly do understand your concern. I do understand the need to be conservative with medical advice over a message board; I do understand that we can’t make a diagnosis without an exam. But the OP describes a typical arcus, which is less a medical diagnosis than a standard part of aging. Like graying hair, wrinkles, and presbyopia, arcus senilis is a ubiquitous feature of growing old.
No, we can’t know this definitely without an exam. But if it looks like arcus, it is 99.99% arcus. Without significant other symptoms – pain, loss of vision, anything – it would be impossible to distinguish from arcus. So the OP should take note, look for changes, and report it to the doctor on his next exam.
IM?! Hopkins?! Well done! The best time of your life starts 7/1/06.
And remember, “The patient’s the one with the disease!”, “Purrty gud”, and, two of my own:
‘Everyone’s either wet or dry. Except you’ll only find out after you give the wet guy a liter of saline, and after you push the lasix for the dry one’.
‘The job of the internist is to buy time (and talk to the family) while the body heals itself’.