Serpiginous, often referring to some chronic medical affliction, signifies it as slowly progressive or "creeping", such as ringworm. Regarding skin ailments in particular, this means that such a disease leaves scar tissue below while continuing to affect the skin above.
Serpiginous choroidopathy is an eye condition. The cause is unknown. The symptoms that an affected person who has it includes blurry vision. A person who has it usually has no symptoms until it has progressed to involve the macula, the part of the fundus (eye) where central vision is processed.
There is a possible link with HLA-B7 and the condition is more common in Caucasians and individuals in their 40s and 50s.
The name of the condition stems from the appearance of snakelike chorioretinal atrophy in the eye and is not contagious. There is no link between ringworm and serpiginous choroidopathy.