How can high blood pressure affect the eyes?
Hypertension or high blood pressure leads to many changes in the blood vessels of the body. These same changes in blood vessels affect the eyes in many ways. It can cause the following problems in the eye: • Hypertensive retinopathy • Macroaneurysms • Branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and vitreous hemorrhage • Optic nerve involvement (Optic neuropathy) • Involvement of the nerves supplying the eye muscles, leading to temporary paralysis or weakness of these muscles What are the symptoms of these conditions? Many of these conditions may not have any symptoms in the initial stages. Therefore it is important to have a periodic eye checkup to detect these. Branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) may lead to a blurring of vision especially for fine work. A vitreous hemorrhage may lead to a more severe loss of vision associated with a shower of red floaters. Optic neuropathy may also lead to a loss of vision, which is painless and not associated with any floaters. Paralysis or weakness of th
