Dynamic focal retinal arteriolar vasospasm in migraine.

A 48-year-old man presented following an episode of sudden onset simultaneous inferior altitudinal visual loss in his left eye and visual obscuration with shimmering in the inferonasal quadrant of the right eye. Clinical examination demonstrated left superior hemiretinal artery occlusion and an area of focal dynamic spasm along the right superior temporal branch retinal artery, the arteriolar spastic cycle was about 2 sec in duration. Hematological (including complete blood count, thrombophilia screen, vasculitic screen and serum magnesium), carotid, and cardiac investigations were normal. He was given acetazolamide 500 mg orally, timolol maleate 0.5% eye drops once daily and sublingual amyl-nitrate 0.8 mg, and maintained on felodipine 10 mg/day and aspirin 100 mg/day. The area of focal arteriolar spasm in the right eye resolved over two months. To our knowledge there are no prior reports of photographically documented dynamic focal retinal vascular spasm on a MEDLINE and PUBMED search.