Old Retinal Vascular Occlusion
- White, thready retinal vessels that look like twisted pipe cleaners
- There is no retinal edema to indicate recent infarction because these vessels were occluded long ago
- Many conditions cause this, including hypertension, connective tissue disease, Behçet disease, sarcoidosis
- Patient has patchy scotomas in visual field corresponding to infarcted retina
- Interpret this as sign of old vascular occlusion
- Blood vessels in other body tissues are probably similarly affected but you cannot see them
- This finding may be clue to systemic vasculopathy which, if active, will go on to destroy tissue elsewhere in body
