Eye Changes in Hypertensive Toxemia of Pregnancy

During the past three years I have made rounds in the Negro obstetric ward of Grady Hospital twice weekly and made records of the fundus oculi of all patients whose systolic blood pressure exceeded 140 or whose diastolic blood pressure exceeded 90. This study was undertaken with the hope of possibly correlating the retinal picture with the degree of clinical toxemia. The first change to be observed in mild toxemia is usually a generalized narrowing of the lumen of the arterioles, which may be limited to a single arteriole or one of its branches. Almost as frequently, however, the first change is a localized narrowing appearing as a single spasm or as a series of spasms, usually in the first half of the retinal artery. The fact that there is usually no associated exaggeration of arterial reflex and no arteriovenous compression suggests that the lesion is spastic and not sclerotic.