Arteriovenous malformation in the retina of a monkey.

A vascular abnormality of the retina of a rhesus monkey was studied with fluorescein angiography, microvascular examination after silicone rubber injection, and histological examination. Fluorescein angiography revealed that this abnormality was an arteriovenous shunt. Microvascular examination showed a vascular abnormality on the sclera and an end-to-end communication of the arteriovenous malformation that was a continuation of abnormally large central retinal vessels observed just before their insertion into the optic nerve in the orbit. Histologic examination proved that the arteriovenous shunt originated from the central retinal vessels in the orbit; that degeneration of the retina and the choroid was extensive near the abnormal vessels; that the abnormal vessels had normal endothelium and adventitia but remarkably widened media; and that the cavernous hamangioma-like structure in the optic disk was clearly distinguishable from a cavernous hamangioma.