[Dynamics of changes in the thickness of the choroid in patients with stenosis of the internal carotid artery].

Thirty-five patients suffering from atherosclerosis with carotid artery stenosis of varying severity have been examined. The thickness of the choroid has been paramacularly measured by the ultrasonic methods. The studies have revealed a significant decrease of the choroid thickness in both eyes of patients with bilateral hemodynamically significant stenoses of the carotid arteries and with bilateral stenoses on the point of occlusion. Of the 12 patients with hemodynamically insignificant stenoses, the choroid thickness has reduced only in 3. Surgical treatment (vascular restoration operations on the carotid arteries) has resulted in recovery of the choroid thickness in all the patients. This has lead the authors to a conclusion that isolated measurements of the choroid thickness in patients with impaired arterial extracranial blood stream cannot serve the diagnostic ophthalmologic test for the detection of patients with carotid insufficiency, but such measurements carried out by ultrasonic techniques, combined with other functional ophthalmologic methods, give valuable information on the time course of changes in the eyeball blood content.