Denton County Living Well Magazine January/February 2018 | Page 40

Stroke, Heart Attack, Vision Loss:
How Eye Doctors
Save Eyes and Lives Courtesy Key-Whitman Eye Center
T
en years ago, Jane Adams*
entered into Key-Whitman Eye
Center for a preoperative exam
prior to having LASIK eye sur-
gery. Jane did not expect that
she would be leaving our office with
life changing news. The eye surgeon
who performed her exam found ex-
cessive pressure on the back of Jane’s
eyes, which indicated she might have
a brain tumor.
Key-Whitman ophthalmologist Larry A. Fish explains what
occurred next. “Instead of giving Jane the all clear for LASIK,
our team arranged for Jane to see a specialist in neuro-oph-
thalmology to find out if the pressure behind her eye was
caused by a brain tumor or another neurological condition.” Symptoms of vascular disease can be spotted during eye ex-
ams. As Dr. Fish explains, “Emboli, cholesterol and plaque
can be visible in the small vasculature in the retina, which
can indicate vascular disease. This scenario happened to
be the case with a patient of mine.”
Jane, being concerned with her health, went to see the
neuro-ophthalmologist right away. During the eye exam in question, Dr. Fish became con-
cerned that his patient had a carotid artery problem and
referred him to the patient’s primary care doctor who set up
a carotid Doppler imaging test.
According to Jane, “While I didn’t have a brain tumor, the special-
ist discovered that I had a build up of fluid and pressure around
my eyes due to a condition known as pseudotumor cerebri.”
The symptoms of pseudotumor cerebri immitate the same symp-
toms of a brain tumor, though no tumor is present. If the condi-
tion is left untreated, fluid and pressure can continue to build
up around the patient’s eyes. High intracranial pressure can
damage the optic nerve which potentially leads to blindness.
Serious health conditions don’t always come
with red flags
Prior to visiting Key-Whitman, Jane didn’t experience
any unusual symptoms that were a cause of concern for
her. “I spent a lot of time on the computer for my job, so
I thought the blurriness and double vision I experienced
from time to time was normal. Fortunately, I went to Key-
Whitman for that exam, otherwise I could have lost my
vision permanently,” Jane says.
With Jane’s neurological condition, many other health is-
sues don’t come with red flags. However, eye doctors of-
ten diagnose serious health problems before primary care
physicians do.
* Patient name and minor details have been changed to protect her privacy.
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DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
“Sure enough, the test revealed the patient had occlusion
of his carotid arteries, which required surgery. Had we not
found vascular irregularities during the eye exam and the
patient didn’t have surgery, he would have been at very
high risk for stroke. So we may have prevented a stroke
from happening just by doing an eye exam,” Dr. Fish says.
Symptoms of common health conditions may
show up during eye exams also.
According to Dr. Fish, the two most common systemic con-
ditions eye doctors find during a routine eye exam are
diabetes and high blood pressure.
“A lot of people don’t know they are diabetic, because
they don’t have any symptoms. But when we examine their
eyes, we can see they have diabetic retinopathy, where
blood vessels in the retina are damaged. During a dilated
eye exam we can also spot vascular changes in the eye
that may indicate the patient has high blood pressure,”
says Dr. Fish. Of course, eye doctors also look for eye
diseases and conditions during an exam, many of which
cause permanent vision loss when left untreated.