Contemporaneous retinal and optic nerve infarcts, choroidal non-perfusion, and Hollenhorst plaque: are these all embolic events?

A 76-year-old man developed a sudden painless superior field defect in the right eye, retinal whitening along the inferior temporal arcade, and fluorescein angiographic evidence of lobular choroidal non-perfusion. One week later, ophthalmoscopy revealed inferior optic nerve edema with splinter hemorrhages consistent with an anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) and a new cholesterol plaque near the macula. There was no clinical, serologic, or pathologic evidence df giant cell arteritis. Carotid ultrasound revealed no evidence of significant stenosis but did show an echolucent soft plaque in the right carotid artery. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated normal left ventricular function with no source of emboli. The presumed cause of the clinical findings in this patient was embolism, a rarely reported cause of AION. An embolic origin may be considered in non-arteritic AION associated with choroidal non-perfusion.