Demonstration of pathological circulating endothelial cells in patients with amaurosis fugax

The present study was performed in nine patients with amaurosis fugax (AF). Eight of the patients had had at least one attack of AF in the preceding 3 months, and the ninth, a woman aged 35 years, had also had a transient cerebral ischaemic attack (TIA) 5 months previously, with residual hemiparesis. Only one patient, a man aged 51 years, had been given 'anti-platelet' therapy before beginning this study, having had a mycocardial infarct some years before. We suggest that AF is due to an embolism of platelet aggregates in the ophthalmic artery and that it is damage to the vascular endothelium which induces the platelet aggregation. In this study, we demonstrate by a simple technique an increased level of abnormal circulating endothelial cells in patients with AF.