A 65-year-old man in Brazil spent a week with a left eye that was painful, red, and losing vision. When ophthalmologists at the Federal University of São Paulo examined the eye, they saw layered bands of cells stacked at the front of the eye, a pattern known as the candy-stripe sign. The image, published online Aug. 6 in JAMA Ophthalmology, is a classic calling card of ghost cell glaucoma.
The condition's defining twist is timing. Ghost cell glaucoma follows bleeding inside the eye, and the pressure spike often arrives weeks to months later. By then, the original bleed may be forgotten, or it may never have been noticed at all.
