ION, microanurysums

[Dbs22]

Hi, I am a 52 year old woman.
6 months ago I had a spontaneous hyphema in my LEFT eye (Iris). At the time it happened the pressure in my eye was 52.  Both eyes now stay around 18.

Presently, I have a "small grayed out area" in my vision. It is in the bottom left quarter of my RIGHT eye that just "appeared" one day about a month ago. It is small, but does affect my vision. It is diagnosed as ischemic optic neuropathy in my right eye.  This result comes after one month of various Opthamologist testing (including several eye angiograms, etc). My Opthamologist admittedly says he is clueless as to why.  My eyes are healthy otherwise and only show microanurysums. It is possible that a microanurysum could be causing the vision disruption, because of where it is located.

My Rhematologist  got involved after speaking with my Opthamologist. She did a huge testing of blood work.  Everything shows up normal, no clotting or other issues. I then went to a Neurologist who looked at a recently done MRI and MRA and declared that I had ischemic optic neuropathy.  For what its worth, he also noted that I brought with me, a prior MRI done 10 years ago, and noted a prior ischemic stroke. This prior stroke was found to be caused by estrogen (birth control).

My worries are what is happening to my eyes? (Left, hyphema and Right, ION.) I had been on one baby aspirin a day since I had the stoke 10 years ago.  When I had the hyphema,6 months ago,  they moved the 81 mg of aspirin to every 2 to 3 days, because of the bleed.  Now that the ischemic optic neuropathy happened I am told I should stay on the aspirin daily. ( A decision of the greater need.)

Do you have any clues on why this could be happening?  I do NOT have high blood pressure, nor am I diabetic, nor do I have multiple scarosis. Where do I go from here to know WHY this is happening? THANK YOU!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[Dbs22]

Thank you for your reply.  You have eased my mind to an extent, I wasn't sure if I should possibly go to a blood specialist or just wait and see. For now I believe I will wait.  I appreciate your time!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

My wife had a spontaneous hyphema in her eye without any cause being found and I have two other patients that have had multiple iris bleeds without cause found.

Microaneurysm should not cause a grey spot but a macro-aneurysm  could. I'm assuming you have small (micro) and not large (macro)

That is a strange combination of symptoms. In some instances all you can do is "watchful waiting" to observe for other symptoms.

It does not mean that you will inevitably come down with some serious disease. Sometimes these things just happen due to random bad luck. I always tell people often we cannot determine "why me? why now?

Good luck
JCH MD

[Dbs22]

Dr Hagan,
Thank you for your time.  I do not smoke, do not use drugs. Cholesterol is HDL 52, LDL 137, Triglycerides 105 total 210. Starting cholesterol drug feofibrate. Mom died of Massive stroke at 70 yrs. a year after quad bypass surgery.  Her veins were not good due to alot of predinsone use for R A. All other health factors are great.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Do you smoke (nicotine or cannabis), do you use any illegal drugs cocaine, crack, etc?    Do you have any blood relatives that have died at young or middle age of strokes, blood clots, etc? Are all your other health factors good? Are your blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides normal?

JCH MD