Hemodynamic Computer-assisted Reconstruction of Pathological Changes at the Origin of the Ophthalmic Artery in Patients With Retinal Artery Occlusion

Retinal artery occlusions (RAO) cause deterioration in visual acuity and visual fields. Emboli from plaques of the carotid artery, aortic arch or vegetations of the cardiac valves are the main reasons for RAO. In computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies [1] 10% of ascending emboli caused RAO, the residual 90% embolized into the cerebral arteries. As only 20% of patients with RAO had a history of stroke, there is a discrepancy between CFD-studies and clinical observations. Mead et al. [2] postulated small emboli being washed into the cerebral arteries without causing clinical symptoms of stroke, whereas similar emboli being washed into the ophthalmic artery would cause RAO. Hayreh et al. [3] reported plaques of the carotid artery to be the main reason for emboli causing RAO.

There is a discrepancy between CFD-study results and clinical observations in RAO patients, indicating that there could be a high number of RAO-patients having had cerebral ischemies without symptoms of stroke (as postulated by Mead et al.[2]). A recently published report showed ischemic cerebral lesions in 38% of patients with RAO without neurological symptoms [4]. The fact, that the 3-year risk of patients with RAO to develop stroke is doubled [5], underlines further associations between RAO and stroke.

Purpose of the present study is to evaluate hemodynamic pathological changes at the ophthalmic artery origin in patients with RAO detected with an already existing CFD-model

References (detailed references are provided in the reference section) :

[1] Leisser et al., [2] Mead et al., [3] Hayreh et al., [4] Lee et al., [5] Chang et al.