RETINAL, CEREBRAL AND SYSTEMIC ARTERIOSCLEROSIS

Abstract

THE CLOSE anatomic relationship between cerebral and retinal arteries rendered it inevitable, after the introduction of ophthalmoscopy in 1851, that some attempt would be made to correlate disease processes in these arteries. Hirschberg¹(1882) was the first to attempt this correlation. He noted that patients with retinal arteriosclerosis frequently presented hemiplegias or other signs of cerebral vascular disease. Subsequent clinical studies have shown rather wide discrepancies in the coexistence of cerebral and retinal arteriosclerosis. Moore,²in a series of 44 cases of cerebral hemorrhage or thrombosis, found retinal arteriosclerosis of severe degree in 43 per cent and of mild degree in 27 per cent. In a study of 52 cases of retinal arteriosclerosis, he found that cerebral vascular accidents occurred in 44 per cent. Wagener³observed retinal arteriosclerosis in only 7 of 27 cases of cerebral arteriosclerosis. Lyle⁴presented in tabular form his observations on 59