The correlation of retinal vein occlusion with carotid artery stenosis

Objective To investigate the correlation between retinal vein occlusion and carotid artery stenosis.Methods Sixty-eight patients(68 eyes) with retinal vein occlusion were studied.Subjects were examined by color Doppler ultrasonography for carotid artery plaque,common carotid artery intima-media thickness,and internal carotid artery blood flow velocity.Forty-nine healthy subjects(49 eyes) were enrolled as control.Results Increased intima-media thickness(IMT) of common carotid artery was found in patients with retinal vein occlusion(P0.01).Both peak systolic velocity(PSV) and end diastolic velocity(EDV) of internal carotid artery reduced significantly(P0.01),while resistance index(RI) increased significantly(P0.01).Differences in gender,ocular side,disease course,and carotid artery side have no effect on these measurements.The plaques are more commonly observed in the crotch of common carotid artery,especially on the left side.These changes exhibited a later recovery in venous stasis retinopathy(VSR) patients,but not in hemorrhagic retinopathy(HR) patients.Our results also showed that the combined therapy at early stage was very important to improve prognosis in some patients with venous stasis retinopathy(VSR).Conclusion The incidence of carotid artery stenosis is high in patients with retinal vein occlusion.Color Doppler ultrasonography of carotid artery indirectly measures the status of retinal blood-supply and may be a reference for disease condition,prognosis and treatment outcomes.It also has some clinical value for cerebral arterial thrombosis prevention.