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Updated: May 29, 2026
Quantification of Vascular Parameters in Whole Mount Retinas of Mice with Non-Proliferative and Proliferative Retinopathies
Published on: March 12, 2022
Purtscher retinopathy: an alternative etiology supported by computer fluid dynamic simulations
Thomas J Harrison1, Cyrus O Abbasi, Tariq A Khraishi
1Alaska Retinal Associates, Anchorage, Alaska, USA. tom_harrison3@hotmail.com
Purpose:
To explore an alternative etiology for Purtscher retinopathy by literature review and fluid dynamic computational simulations of wall shear stress (WSS) profiles.
Methods:
Computer simulations were developed, incorporating posterior pole retinal microvascular flow parameters, to demonstrate WSS profiles at 90° and 45° angle artery/arteriolar branching.
Results:
Computer simulations reveal WSS profiles dependent on artery/arteriolar branching angles. At high flow rates an area of changed WSS and flow swirling and reversal was noted at the proximal fillet of the 90° arteriolar branching. These changes did not appear at the 45° arteriolar branching until the flow rate was increased an additional 30%.
Conclusions:
Computer simulation data, as well as review of the history and clinical findings of Purtscher and Purtscher-like retinopathy, present evidence that an additional etiology for Purtscher retinopathy may be a rheological event at a retinal posterior pole foci of vascular endothelial dysregulation, followed by downstream endothelin-induced vasculopathy.
