This video shows what spontaneous venous pulsations look like in the retina. This eye is suffering from ocular ischemic syndrome which has dilated the retinal veins and make them even easier to see than usual.
Most people believe that these pulsations are caused because of a differential between eye and CSF pressure. The CSF cavity (transmitted forward along the optic nerves) is separated from the vitreous cavity by only the lamina cribosa at the optic nerve head. When pressure is elevated too high around the brain, the pulsations stop because the pressure gradient is too high. The presence of pulsations is a reasonably good indicator that the CSF pressure is ok. Unfortunately, the lack of pulsations doesn’t tell you much as this can be entirely normal.
Pulsations are only rarely examined in ophthalmology, and this findings is more often sought after by neurology who deal more with ICP issues.
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Hi,
Thanks for the interesting video. I can see the veins dilated, which is a classical sign of OIS. The arteries look much attenuated and these pulsations seem to originate rather from the retinal artery, which is another typical sign of severe ocular blood flow compromise, and that is perhaps transmitted to the venous wall.
Mostafa
Comment by Mostafa Elgohary — January 29, 2008 @ 4:29 am
thx you very much!
Im from Vietnam, where don’t have many video for study.
This Web Help me very much. THx agan .
Great video, thank you so much. Being in my last year of neurology, I have always had difficulty seeing this, but now I have a better idea of what to look for.
Comment by dr layla ali aljasim — November 12, 2009 @ 4:58 am
it is really a good vidio for newcommers in opphthal society THANKS
Comment by dr Prachi Shukla — November 30, 2009 @ 7:42 am
2times I saw spontaneous venous pulsations when taking fundus examination in patients. This sign also broughtsome questions to me and I tried to explain it
Comment by minhthe_md — January 17, 2010 @ 2:19 pm
this is v unfortunate that i cant see d videos
pls help….m v much interested…
Comment by dr prachi — September 9, 2010 @ 1:32 pm
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