[Clinical manifestations of retinal artery macroaneurysms].

OBJECTIVE

To summarize the clinical characteristics of retinal arterial macroaneurysm and to improve the diagnosis accuracy in order to differentiate it from other fundus diseases.

METHODS

It was a retrospective case series.

RESULTS

of fluorescein angiography or indocyanine angiography, associated with ultrasound, OCT and several other examinations were analyzed in 22 patients (22 eyes) with retinal arterial macroaneurysm.

RESULTS

There were 6 men and 16 women in the 22 patients. The age of all the patients was from 54 to 82 years, and the mean age was 70 years. In the 22 patients, the patient with a single macroaneurysm was 19, and with two macroaneurysms was 3. All 22 patients were affected unilaterally. Macroaneurysms were found only in the temporal artery branches (16 eyes in superior branch and 6 eyes in inferior branch). All macroaneurysms were located in the branches graded 1 to 3. All patients showed pre-retinal hemorrhage and/or vitreous hemorrhage. Sixteen patients suffered from hypertension and five patients had diabetes mellitus. The patient with best corrected visual acuity < 0.05 was 10, 0.05 to 0.2 was 6, 0.3 to 0.6 was 5 and > or = 0.7 was 1. All patients showed retinal arteriosclerosis. After the treatment, 11 patients were pursued,and the patient with best corrected visual acuity < 0.05 was 1, 0.05 to 0.2 was 4 and > or = 0.7 was 1.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical features of retinal arterial macroaneurysm include focal dilation of retinal artery with hemorrhages and exudates, associated with retinal arteriosclerosis. These clinical characteristics can be used to differentiate retinal arterial macroaneurysm from other fundus diseases.