Retinoblastoma... pictures... advice please.?!
Question: Retinoblastoma... pictures... advice please.?
If any one has every dealt with this personally, I would love to hear what they think. But otherwise, I'll post a couple of pictures, and I'm hoping someone could tell me whether they look normal to them, maybe just weird reflections somehow, or whether they look like something concerning.
Here's my niece, with some pics of the white eyes:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/ohd…
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/ohd…
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/ohd…
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/ohd…
Here's another from the side, where I can still see weird white:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/ohd…
But then she has a few pictures like this, where it looks like normal red eye or nothing:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62/ohd…
So... I'm not trying to be paranoid, but I can't help feel worried when I read there's a possibilty she could have something that could be deadly. So any input would be great, at least to get me pointed in the right direction. Thank you in advance.
Answers:
To me, all but one of those pictures looks normal. Young people with big pupils sometimes end up with a yellow-white reflection instead of red in pictures, depending on the angle. (The one from the side looks a little weird, which I think is probably just the side angle.)
To point you in the right direction? Go to an optometrist or ophthalmologist and ask them to dilate your little one. White pupils are a common enough thing that any of us can examine, even if we don't necessarily specialize in pediatric care. Typically though, there are several other causes of white pupils (look up the differential diagnosis of leukocoria, if you'd like) that are much more common and much less severe, so I would try not to worry until you see a doctor. I've seen a couple cases of retinoblastoma (working in a hospital) but I've seen lots more cataracts and Coat's disease and other stuff too; RB happens something like one in a hundred thousand children, so the odds are very much in your favour that even if your niece has a true white pupil, it's probably not the worst-case scenario.
I'm an optometrist.
Thats not white, its red. In the picture with an adult, the adult has the same effect. It is called red eye and due to reflection from the retina of the flash. Better quality cameras have a "red eye correction" feature with the flash.
Retinablastoma is white pupil and is visible when looking at the baby live, not a white spot seen only in pictures.
best to get it checked out by a professional just in case, unless you know someone who's got an ophthalmoscope to look inside the eye if you don't want to make a big deal out of it. retinoblastoma can be life threatening so you don't want to take chances