Blood pressure and pressure amaurosis

Invest Ophthalmol. 1975 Mar;14(3):237-40.

Abstract

Susceptibility to pressure amaurosis was measured in young research subjects before and during blood pressure elevation induced by intravenous infusions of phenylephrine. Intraocular pressure elevations were produced by paralimbal suction; we measured the highest level to which intraocular pressure could be raised without obliterating perception of a slowly flickering stimulus in the nasal field of vision. Elevation of systemic blood pressure was accompanied in all subjects by a corresponding increase in the highest "safe" level of intraocular pressure. This observation confirms the commonly held hypothesis that pressure amaurosis is the result of pressure-induced neuroretinal ischemia.

MeSH terms

  • Atropine / pharmacology
  • Blindness / physiopathology*
  • Blood Pressure* / drug effects
  • Eye / blood supply
  • Humans
  • Intraocular Pressure*
  • Ischemia
  • Ophthalmodynamometry
  • Phenylephrine / pharmacology
  • Sodium Chloride / pharmacology
  • Tonometry, Ocular

Substances

  • Phenylephrine
  • Sodium Chloride
  • Atropine