Ocular and Systemic Manifestation of Amaurosis Fugax: Six-Year Observational Study

Tae Hwan Moon; Ju Byung Chae

doi:10.7469/JKOS.2015.56.05.732

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Moon and Chae: Ocular and Systemic Manifestation of Amaurosis Fugax: Six-Year Observational Study

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2015;56(5):732-736.

Published online: 7 September 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7469/JKOS.2015.56.05.732

Ocular and Systemic Manifestation of Amaurosis Fugax: Six-Year Observational Study

Tae Hwan Moon, MD, Ju Byung Chae, MD

Department of Ophthalmology, Chungbuk National University College of Medicine, Cheongju, Korea

￭ Address reprint requests to Ju Byung Chae, MD Department of Ophthalmology, Chungbuk National University Hospital, #776 1sunhwan-ro, Seowon-gu, Cheongju 362-711, Korea Tel: 82-43-269-6335, Fax: 82-43-269-5263 E-mail: jbchae@chungbuk.ac.kr

Received 14 August 201415 October 2014 Accepted 9 April 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

초록

Purpose:

To investigate the prevalence of ocular and systemic disease causing amaurosis fugax and to discuss the ocular and systemic manifestation of each disease.

Methods:

Consecutive patients who had amaurosis fugax were retrospectively studied from 2007 to 2013. Carotid evaluation using Doppler was performed in all patients. Ocular and medical histories were taken and bilateral ophthalmic evaluation performed.

Results:

This study included 35 patients. The mean age of patients was 63 years and 27 patients were male; 29 unilateral and 6 bilateral eyes were involved. Associated systemic disease included hypertension (54.3%) and diabetes mellitus (34.2%). The most frequent cause of amaurosis fugax was retinal artery occlusion (28.6%) followed by ocular ischemic syndrome (22.9%), other vascular diseases (11.4%), and retinal vein occlusion (5.7%). The remaining 31.4% patients with amaurosis fugax had no vascular disease. Clinically significant stenosis of the internal carotid artery was observed in 16 patients (45.7%) and 6 of these patients (37.5%) had retinal artery occlusion disease.

Conclusions:

Prevalence and clinical manifestation of amaurosis fugax is very complex. Patients with transient visual disturbance are at risk for retinal artery occlusion, ocular ischemic syndrome and other diseases which cause visual loss. Therefore, careful history taking and urgent systemic and ophthalmic evaluations should be performed.

Keywords: Amaurosis fugax, Carotid doppler ultrasonography, Carotid stenosis, Ocular ischemic syndrome, Retinal artery occlusion

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Figure 1.

Disease distribution of new patients with amaurosis fugax. ^* Diabetic retinopathy, atrial fibrillation; † Transient ischemic attack, migrane, panuveitis.

Table 1.

Basic characteristics of patients with amaurosis fugax (n = 35)

	Results
Sex (M:F)	27:8
Age at initial visit (years, range)	63.77 ± 12.59 (30-83)
Eye involved (n, %)
Unilateral	29 (82.9)
Bilateral	6 (17.1)
Underlying disease
Hypertension	19 (54.3)
Diabetes mellitus	12 (34.3)
Cardiovascular disease^*	5 (14.3)

Values are presented as mean ± SD unless otherwise indicated.

^* Myocardial infarction, angina, stroke.

Table 2.

Carotid doppler findings of the patients with amaurosis fugax

	Retinal artery occlusion (n = 10)	Retinal vein occlusion (n = 2)	Ocular ischemic syndrome (n = 8)	Other vascular disease (n = 4)	No vascular disease (n = 11)
Clinically significant stenosis (%)^*	6 (60)	0	6 (75)	2 (50)	2 (18.2)

^* Plaque that can cause emboli or stenosis up to 50% of diameter.

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