Ultrasonic findings in the vitreous body at different ages and in patients with detachment of the retina.

The effect of age on degeneration of the vitreous body was studied in 77 patients and in 123 eyes. The patients were divided into three groups by age, with a mean age of 16, 35 and 72 years, respectively. In the two younger groups the vitreous body generally appeared to be acoustically homogeneous, while the oldest group showed heterogeneity of the vitreous body in a majority of cases. Syneresis of the vitreous body yielded a highly characteristic echogram. A total of 22 eyes with unilateral idiopathic detachment of the retina were examined, and in all of them degeneration of the vitreous body was clearly detected. Examination of the other, "normal" eye revealed only four eyes with an acoustically homogeneous vitreous body. Six patients had severe syneresis in bthe eyes. The evident conclusion is that detachment of the retina even in a single eye is often accompanied by degeneration of the vitreous body in the other eye as well.