ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Tell if You Have Had An Eye Stroke

Updated on April 12, 2016
catydid52 profile image

Catharine Leona Joy Minter Parks published several books on Amazon including Eye Rings,For the Shattered Soul, Stop Killing Your Obese Child

Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (AION) is a devastating disease that occurs in the middle aged and the elderly. It damages the optic nerve, and thus is called, 'a stroke of the optic nerve. Little warning is given as it strikes one eye, and can progress to the other eye later. A stroke of the optic nerve is not related to a stroke occurring in the brain so is not accompanied by any weakness or paralysis.

The Optic Nerve and its Role

The optic nerve can be seen at the back of the eye in an examination by the Ophthalmologist. It is made up of millions of nerve fibers, and blood vessels which nourish the optic nerve with blood and nutrients. In a healthy optic nerve messages are sent to the brain resulting in vision. When the optic nerve is damaged, or its circulation is cut off, distortion or no vision is the result. How much vision is lost depends on how much damage to the optic nerve there is.

Ischemia's Two Types of Optic Neuropathy

ischemia, is a restriction in blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen and glucose needed for cellular metabolism. Ischemia is generally caused by problems with blood vessels, resulting in damage to or dysfunction of tissue.

There are two types of Ischemic Optic Neuropathy depending upon which part of the optic nerve is affected.

Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (AION)

This is caused by acute ischemia of the front(anterior) part of the optic nerve which is supplied by the posterior ciliary arteries.

Posterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (PION)

This is a less common type, and is caused by acute ischemia of the back (posterior) part of the optic nerve located behind the eyeball and this part is not supplied by the posterior cilia arteries.

AION has two types depending on what causes it, Arteritic AION which is a serious type and is due to a disease called Giant Cell Arteritis or temporal arteritis. The second type is Non-arteritic AION a more common type with different causes but not associated with giant cell arteritis.

How AION is Diagnosed

The doctor will ask you some vital questions to determine which AION you have. In Non- Arteritic AION he may ask these questions to rule out non-arteritic AION. Painless, loss of vision due to AION may be the first symptom or complication of other diseases.

  • Was the vision loss sudden or gradual? If sudden what time of day was it discovered.

  • Any blurring or loss of vision before the actual vission loss, has it been stable since first discovering it, or improved or worsened.

  • Are you diabetic?

  • Any heart trouble, stroke, high or low blood pressure, or shock, recent heart surgery, cataract surgery, any excessive bleeding?

  • Any family history of glaucoma?

    Do you smoke, are you on any high blood pressure medication, if yes, which drug, how often and what time of day do you take it?

  • Are you on any birth control pills, or estrogen pills?

Giant Cell Arteritis AION is a medical emergency because of the complication of visual loss in one or both eyes, which is preventable if diagnosis is early and treated immediately and aggressively with corticosteroids. This disease strikes those over 50 years or older, and is more common in women than men.

Eighty percent of persons with Giant Cell Arteritis will have felt unwell for some time. Twenty percent have no general symptoms and are healthy. Some patients experience, 'euphoria or well-being,' while they are unconcerned about their vision loss and may insist they see well when it is clear they can't. They may even refuse treatment so it is important for family support to convince them they need help.


Signs to Look For

If Giant Cell Arteritis is present the physician will want to know about these problems.

  • Pain while chewing food, loss of appetite, weight loss, pain in the temples and neck
  • Scalp tenderness, headaches, fatigue, sleepiness, muscular aches and pains

    The ophthalmologist needs to know how much the patient can see at every visit, to see if any changes have occurred. Plus reading the eye charts for distance and near visual acuity, the patient will often have visual field testing.

    Visual field testing:

    This test measures both straight ahead and side vision. A defect in the visual field test shows which optic nerve fibers are affected by the disease. A normal eye (20/20) visual acuity can have visual field loss in the periphery, so a normal visual acuity does not determine no visual loss.

    Relative Afferent Pupillary Defect

    The pupil of the eye gets larger and smaller according to the amount of light, the optic nerve reacts to light. If the pupil is constricting to light less than normal it shows there is damage to the optic nerve. Pupils are tested by shining a light into each eye causing them to constrict, as the light is moved between the eyes the pupil should constrict to the same size. If this doesn't happen then a relative afferent pupillary defect is present in the affected eye.

    Glaucoma Testing

    Pressure in the eye is measured with a tonometer, it is a painless procedure that is essential to obtain information about the circulation in the eye. A person may not know they have high pressure in the eye until they have experienced visual loss.

    Fundus Photograph and Fluorescein Fundus Angiography

    This is a routine dye test to determine the state of circulation, or the amount of swelling in of the optic disc and its resolution.

Visual Test

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)