An examination of the possibilities of preventive therapy in arteriolar retinopathies.

The identification of certain chronic vascular retinopathies has been marked by a search for their classification. Such proper classification has therapeutic implications. The similarities of these retinopathies are based on a shared pathogenic process, initiated by diminished arteriolar perfusion pressure, as the result of varied causes but leading to somewhat nonspecific capillary and reactive stages. On the basis of such a pathogenesis, various possible prophylactic and therapeutic measures and their organizational requirements are significant. These measures are directed to the correction of a blood perfusion pressure defect and to leaking capillaries and new vessels. Prophylactic and therapeutic exercises will be required for various chronic arteriolar capillaropathies, although the experience with one disease may be applicable to the others. Senile macular disciform degeneration provides the factors necessary for a therapeutic trial.