How is hypertensive retinopathy diagnosed?
An eye care professional can diagnose hypertensive retinopathy. Using an ophthalmoscope, an instrument that projects light to examine the back of the eyeball, the doctor will look for signs of retinopathy that include: Narrowing of blood vessels. Spots on the retina known as cotton wool spots and exudates.
What Elschnig spots?
Elschnig spots (arrow) are the changes in the retinal pigment epithelium from nonperfused areas of the choriocapillaris.
What does AV nicking indicate?
Retinal arteriovenous nicking (AV nicking) is the phenomenon where the venule is compressed or decreases in its caliber at both sides of an arteriovenous crossing. Recent research suggests that retinal AVN is associated with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
What are cotton-wool spots?
Cotton-wool spots (CWSs) are common retinal manifestations of many diseases including diabetes mellitus, systemic hypertension, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Clinically they appear as whitish, fluffy patches on the retina and eventually fade with time.
What causes cotton-wool spots?
Cotton-wool spots are composed of accumulations of neuronal debris within the nerve fibre layer. They result from ischaemic disruption of nerve axons, the swollen ends of which are known as cytoid bodies, seen on light microscopy as globular structures in the nerve fibre layer (Fig. 13.11A).
What is cotton-wool spots?
What are cotton wool spots in retina?
What is AV nicking in hypertensive retinopathy?
Arteriovenous nicking, also known as AV nicking, is the phenomenon where, on examination of the eye, a small artery (arteriole) is seen crossing a small vein (venule), which results in the compression of the vein with bulging on either side of the crossing.
How do you assess AV nicking?
What to do?
- Using ophthalmoscope, find these vessels at their emergence from optic disc and follow them as far out as you can, looking for arteriovenous nicking, which is usually found within 5 disc diameters of optic disc.
- Measure blood pressure and inquire after other arteriosclerotic risk factors.
What causes cotton-wool spots in eye?
Cotton wool spots are an abnormal finding on funduscopic exam of the retina of the eye. They appear as fluffy white patches on the retina. They are caused by damage to nerve fibers and are a result of accumulations of axoplasmic material within the nerve fiber layer.