Distribution of internal carotid artery plaque locations among patients with central retinal artery occlusion in the Eagle study population.

Purpose Arterial emboli in the internal carotid artery (ICA) mainly cause cerebral ischemia; only 10 % of emboli reach the retinal arteries. Computational blood flow studies suggest that plaques situated in the ICA siphon may be a source of embolism to the ophthalmic artery (OA). To validate these calculated probabilities in patients with central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO), we reanalyzed digital subtraction angiography (DSA) images from the Multicenter Study of the European Assessment Group for Lysis in the Eye (EAGLE) study, a multicenter randomized study in patients with nonarteritic CRAO.