Fluorescein Retinal Angiography in Carotid Occlusion

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Abstract
THE RETINAL circulation has attracted the attention of cerebrovascular physiologists and neurologists as well as ophthalmologists because of the unique opportunity it affords for direct observation of a segment of the cerebral vasculature, including branches of a small artery, arterioles, capillaries, and veins. Such techniques as ophthalmodynamometry1 and arm-to-retina fluorescein appearance time2 utilize the visibility of the retinal arteries in providing evidence of occlusive disease in the carotid trunk which supplies them before it divides to become the anterior circulation of the cerebral hemisphere. Fluorescein fundus photography now offers a method for studying the dynamics of the retinal circulation. This technique, first described by Novotny and Alvis,3 has been employed chiefly to reveal fine details of retinal vascular anatomy4 and to demonstrate changes in the permeability of retinal vessels.5 Heretofore, the method has been seriously limited by a delay of five to