What the Whites of your Eyes say about your Health

Abstract:

Medicine is an art. Some thinks that doctors always need modern investigations to diagnose diseases. That is not true. Almost all the diseases can be diagnosed only by taking a proper history and by carrying out a thorough physical examination.

Medicine is an art. Some thinks that doctors always need modern investigations to diagnose diseases. That is not true. Almost all the diseases can be diagnosed only by taking a proper history and by carrying out a thorough physical examination. Not only doctors but also fortune tellers, palm readers and people who tell about people’s lives have the knowledge and ability to gather information from what they see. There are certain parts of the body that give information more than any modern test can give. Your eyes play a leading role in that list.

Eyes of a person tell a lot about him. The eye is composed of several components. Each one of these components is very important to your vision. The white of the eye, also known as the sclera is one such part. The whites of the eyes tell a lot about your health. Most of the time, the color of the sclera is the most apparent change in relation to the underlying disease.

Muddy Sclera

Before going to know about the abnormal presentations of your eyes, you should know about the normal variations. Usually a healthy person has a pure white sclera, but not always. Some people sometimes can have light brown discoloration of their eyes. This is known as muddy sclera. Muddy sclera commonly occurs as a result of repetitive exposure to wind, dust and other physical and chemical insults. That does not indicate any serious underlying illness, but it says that you are carrying out a life that exposes you to a lot of dust, wind and sunlight.

Yellowish Discoloration

Yellowish discoloration of eyes, also known as icterus or jaundice always indicates an underlying disease. The eyes become yellow as a result of increased amount of bilirubin in your blood. Bilirubin is produced by breakdown of red cells. The initial molecules produced immediately after breakdown of red cells are called unconjugated bilirubin. Then these unconjugated bilirubin molecules are carried to the liver and the liver converts them in to conjugated bilirubin and excretes them in the bile. Any illness that increases red cell destruction or interferes with the above mentioned pathway results in increment of serum bilirubin levels. These excess amounts of bilirubin deposits in the sclera and make it look yellow. Some of the commonest causes of yellowish discoloration of eyes are hemolytic anemias (thalassemia, hereditary spherocytosis), hepatitis, Gilbert’s syndrome, Crigler Najjar syndrome, sclerosing cholangitis, carcinoma of bile duct, gall stones, carcinoma of the head of the pancrease etc.
Blue Sclera
Blue sclera is beautiful, but the underlying disease is not. People with diseases such as osteogenesis imperfect have blue sclera. Osteogenesis imperfect usually present at a very early age with recurrent bone fractures. The presence of blue sclera helps the physicians to come to a final diagnosis.
Bitot Spots
Bitots spots are characteristic of vitamin A deficiency. They appear as white or gray triangular or oval spots on the temporal side of the eye. Bitot spots are very rare nowadays because almost every child is given vitamin A supplements to help them maintain their tissue stores.

Scleritis and Episcleritis

Red eyes are sometimes due to scleritis or episcleritis. These two conditions are usually linked with connective tissue disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. Sometimes they are associated with sero negative arthropathies such as ankylosing spondylitis.

Conjunctivitis

If your eyes have become red, teary and inflamed, you are having conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is inflammation of the sclera. It can be allergic conjunctivitis, viral conjunctivitis or bacterial conjunctivitis.

Subconjunctival Hemorrhage

Subconjunctival hemorrhage appears as a spot of bleeding. Sometimes it indicates base of skull fracture. Sometimes it is simply due to local trauma. The presence of posterior margin of the hemorrhage indicate that is only a local condition but if there is no posterior margin, it is most probably due to base of skull fracture.

Above mentioned are only an outline of most common disease conditions that causes changes in the whites of your eyes. There are many other rare disease conditions that give rise to changes in the sclera.