2. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion
M.AKHLAGHI MD

3. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Background
In 1859, Van Graefe first described central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) as an embolic event to the central retinal artery in a patient with endocarditis.

5. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion pathophysiology
Acutely, obstruction of the central retinal artery results in inner layer edema and pyknosis of the ganglion cell nuclei. Ischemic necrosis results, and the retina becomes opacified and yellow-white in appearance.

6. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Pathophysiology
The opacification takes as little as 15 minutes to several hours before becoming evident
Whit time edema resolves in 4-6 weeks.
Pigmentary changes are typically absent

7. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion EPIDEMIOLOGY
Age > 40 years old.
Risk factors may include:
Hypertension,
Hypercholesterolemia,
Diabetes
Vascular disease,
Prior myocardial infarction,
Cardiac stenting procedures,
Transient ischemic attacks,
Stroke

8. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion EPIDEMIOLOGY
CRAO in younger patients may associated whit collagen vascular diseases, cardiac valvular disease or hypercoagulopathies
CRAO is associated with giant cell arteritis in 1-2% of cases.

9. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion symptoms
Sudden, painless loss of vision in one eye.
May have a history of amaurosis fugax prior to presentation
Vision loss usually in the range of 20/20 to hand motions. Unlikely to be no light perception

10. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion symptoms
Approximately 25% of eyes with acute CRAO have cilioretinal artery.
In 10% of eyes, the cilioretinal artery supplies some or all of the foveola. In such an eye, the visual acuity generally returns to 20/50 or better in 80% of eyes over a 2-week period.

12. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion signs
Cherry red spot: The lack of arterial perfusion to the inner layers of the retina results in edema of the retina. In the fovea, the underlying choroid with intact RPE is visible and appears as a "cherry red spot" when compared to the cloudy, edematous retina adjacent to it
Vascular attenuation
May see an embolus in vessel on optic nerve.

14. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion
Differential Diagnoses for Cherry-Red Spot
Central Retinal Artery Occlusion (CRAO)
Tay-Sachs disease
GM1 gangliosidosis
Niemann-Pick disease
mucolipidosis

15. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Para clinic
Fluorescein angiography
Normal choroidal filling
Delay in retinal arterial filling (begins normally 1-2 seconds after choroidal filling)
Arterial narrowing with normal fluorescein transit after recanalization

16. limited and sluggish filling (arrowheads) of the retinal arteries (a) 40 s after injection of fluorescein. The veins (v) were not yet filling

17. Early phase fluorescein angiogram shows absence of retinal artery filling except in cilioretinal artery and superior temporal arcade

18. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Para clinic
OCT

20. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Para clinic
ERG

21. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Management
Therapy for CRAO should be undertaken without delay.
Steps include reduction in lOP by ocular massage, anterior chamber paracentesis, or use of retrobulbar anesthesia.
Mechanism of decrease in IOP?
Even with these treatments, improvement in visual acuity is rare.

22. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Management
Treatments advocated in the past have included inhalation therapy with a 95% oxygen-5% carbon dioxide mixture and the use of oral acetazolamide and aspirin. these treatments are no longer advocated.
Limited evidence of improved visual acuity with urokinase is available. A few cases of intra-arterial tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) administration have been observed to be successful

23. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Work-up
To evaluate etiology, workup may include:
-Neurology evaluation for workup and modification of risk factors.
Fasting blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipid panel to evaluate for atherosclerotic disease
-ESR/CRP and giant cell arteritis review of systems.
-carotid ultrasound -EKG -cardiac echography
-CBC, PT/PTT, consider ANA, syphilis serology if indicated.

24. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Follow-up
A follow-up ophthalmic examination should be performed 1-4 weeks after the.
Neovascularization of the iris occurs in 20% of patients at an average of 4-5 weeks after the event. The range is 1-15 weeks.
Neovascularization of the disc occurs in 2-3% of patients.
A complete systemic workup should be performed by a primary care provider.

25. Central Retinal Artery Occlusion Prognosis
Most patients continue to experience severe vision loss in the counting fingers to hand motion range.
As many as 10% of patients retain central vision because of the presence of a cilioretinal artery
Life expectancy of patients with central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is 5.5 years compared to years for an age-matched population without CRAO.

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