Atherosclerotic carotid artery disease in patients with retinal ischemic syndromes. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The extracranial carotid systems of 105 patients with retinal ischemia were examined using B-mode ultrasonography with integrated pulsed Doppler. Sixty-four patients had amaurosis fugax (AF), 17 central retinal artery occlusions (CRAO), and 21 branch retinal artery occlusions (BRAO). The prevalence of carotid stenosis (greater than or equal to 60%) ipsilateral to the symptomatic eye was low (16%). Eighty-six percent of AF patients had either no plaque causing less than a 60% stenosis. A significant proportion of subjects with normal duplex scans had alternative explanations for their retinal ischemia (eg, migraine, cardiac embolus). Patients with Hollenhorst plaques were more likely to have stenotic or ulcerated plaque (p = 0.04). The degree of carotid stenosis correlated significantly with the number of vascular risk factors identified in individual patients (p = 0.02). The presence of risk factors was more common in CRAO and BRAO patients compared with the AF group. Combined ultrasound-Doppler investigations of the carotid bifurcation are valuable noninvasive tools for the screening of patients with retinal ischemia.

publication date

  • June 1, 1988

Research

keywords

  • Arteriosclerosis
  • Carotid Artery Diseases
  • Ischemia
  • Retina

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0023818867

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1212/wnl.38.6.858

PubMed ID

  • 3285240

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 38

issue

  • 6