Stroke Risk Can Now Check Eye Looks

Stroke Risk Can Now Check Eye Looks

Eye examination can reveal not only about vision disorders such as cataracts or eye minus. Some conditions are found when the eye check can also indicate a blood vessel disorder that causes stroke.
Vascular disorders in question is a carotid artery stenosis, blockage of arteries leading to the front of the brain.

If during this difficult to detect the disorder, scientists from the University of Zurich found a much easier way. The trick is to use a method called Ocular Pulse Amplitude (OPA), by measuring blood pressure in the eye.
In a study published in the journal Ophthalmology, the scientists examined 67 people with carotid artery stenosis. The result when there is blockage of an artery, then the OPA scores tend to be lower than average scores in healthy individuals.
The results of these observations and confirmed again by ultrasonic examination, to ascertain whether any blockages in the arteries leading to the forebrain. The result is no different than anticipated, namely that the blockages tend to occur in participants who had lower scores OPA.
These findings suggest that examination of carotid artery stenosis to determine the risk of stroke can be done in an easier way. Examination of the OPA also considered more effective and safer than ultrasonic.
Currently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force does prohibit the ultrasonic test performed in the general population if no symptoms are apparent. Besides being expensive, risk measures tended to be larger because it often leads to unnecessary surgery.
"Our research shows that the ocular pulse amplitude is reliable, safe to detect caretoid artery stenosis. We recommend further research to ensure that this method can be used for the prevention of stroke," said one researcher, Dr. Pascal Bruno Knecht, MD, as quoted from the Huffingtonpost , Tuesday (06/12/2012).