10 September 2025
: Case report
Smoking and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Key Contributors to Central Retinal Vein Occlusion in an Elderly Patient
Challenging differential diagnosis, Unusual or unexpected effect of treatment, Diagnostic / therapeutic accidents, Rare coexistence of disease or pathology
Kristina J. HartungDOI: 10.12659/AJCR.947140
Am J Case Rep 2025; 26:e947140
Figure 1 Multimodal imaging of a patient with central retinal vein occlusion in the right eyeColor fundus photograph at baseline (A) shows extensive hemorrhages in all 4 quadrants, dilated and tortuous veins, and optic disc edema, which are hallmarks of central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Due to preexisting macular atrophy, seen as atrophic areal in the macula, there is no macular edema. Fluorescein angiography at baseline (B) demonstrates delayed filling of the dilated and tortuous retinal veins, hypofluorescent dots represent retinal hemorrhages, dye leakage from the capillaries of the optic disc, and staining of the disc in late phases is consistent with optic disc edema. Color fundus 7 months after initial diagnosis (4 months after chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] treatment) (C) shows marked improvement, with only a few remaining hemorrhages and markedly reduced optic disc edema. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the optic disc at baseline shows marked optic disc edema at baseline (D) and its resolution 7 months after initial diagnosis (4 months after COPD treatment) (E).






