Page 110 - The Indian Optician Digital Edition September-October 2021
P. 110
RETINAL EMBOLI:
WHAT ARE THEY?
troke is the third most common cause of death
in India. Eighty percent of all strokes of the brain
1
Sare due to occlusion of a vessel secondary to
atherothrombosis or embolus. Some of these emboli
2
will travel to the eye causing retinal artery occlusion.
The United States Blue Mountains Eye study identified
Tyler Clairmont the prevalence of retinal emboli at 1.4% in the general
BS
population older than 49 years of age. Retinal emboli
3
can cause occlusion of a retinal artery resulting in a
stroke in the eye. This prevalence increases with age.
The incidence of retinal artery occlusion in the general
population has been estimated at 1 to 2 per 100,000
per year. A Taiwanese study found that nearly 20% of
4
retinal artery occlusion patients suffered a brain stroke
within three years of their incident ocular event.
5
Retinal emboli are significantly more common in men
than in women. Patients who present with retinal
3
emboli will frequently present with a medical history of
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia
and/or a history of cigarette smoking. Sudden,
6
painless vision loss in one eye is the most frequent
Leonid Skorin presenting symptom involving retinal emboli.
Jr., OD, DO, MS, FAAO, FAOCO
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY
The appearance and characteristics associated
with the embolus upon fundoscopy are helpful in
determining the most likely composition and origin.
The most common origins of retinal emboli are the
carotid artery and the heart. The typical funduscopic
findings include retinal edema (evident as retinal
whitening), a cherry red spot (a result of preserved
choroidal circulation underlying the fovea that is
surrounded by pale, ischemic retina) (Figure 1), slow
segmental blood flow (known as boxcarring) in the
| SEPT-OCT 2021 | 106 CLINICAL
