Cardiovascular system >>>> Retinal angiopathy

Retinal angiopathy.

Disruption of blood flow in the vessels of the retina as a result of an increase or decrease in the tone of the wall of blood vessels is called retinal angiopathy . Retinal angiopathy can develop in a hypotonic or hypertensive type. Hypotonic retinal angiopathy is a consequence of arterial hypotension - low blood pressure. Hypertensive retinal angiopathy develops due to arterial hypertension.

There are a number of other causes of retinal angiopathy:

Eye trauma, brain trauma;
Increased intracranial pressure;
Injury or osteochondrosis of the cervical spine;
Abnormal changes in the structure of the walls of blood vessels;
Vascular lesion in atherosclerosis or diabetes mellitus (fibrous changes in the vascular wall);
Violations of the regulators of vascular tone (vagus nerve, carotid sinus).

Retinal angiopathy causes degenerative disorders in the structure of the retina and, as a consequence, pathology of the optical system of the eye.

The characteristic signs of retinal angiopathy are :

Deterioration of vision clarity (blurry, cloudy image),
Flickering, flashes of light in the eyes,
Hemorrhage in the eye,
When examining the fundus, there is a tortuosity of the vessels, their thinning or, on the contrary, excessive expansion, depending on the hypotonic or hypertensive type of retinal angiopathy . A characteristic feature of this disease is the equalization of the section of the blood vessels of the eye: veins and arteries, as a result of which the blood stagnates in the veins and can provoke the phenomenon of thrombosis of the blood vessels of the eye.

Treatment of retinal angiopathy requires joint action of an ophthalmologist, cardiologist, neuropathologist, therapist. The main goal of the treatment is to improve the blood supply to the eye by taking medications that affect the rheological properties of the blood (thinning the blood), improving the biophysical characteristics of the vascular wall (increasing strength, elasticity, reducing permeability) and stabilizing blood pressure. For this purpose, antiplatelet agents (aspirin, xanthinol nicotinate, calcium dobesylate), vitamins (nicotinic acid, group B, ascorbic acid), antioxidants (emoxipin, quinax), stimulators of regenerative processes and metabolism (taufon, solcoseryl, actovegin) are taken.

Retinal angiopathy is dangerous because, in addition to degenerative changes in the tissues of the eye as a result of insufficient blood supply, it affects the state of the optic nerve and its function, which is fraught with loss of vision.