ARTERIOLES OF THE RETINA IN TOXEMIA OF PREGNANCY

Abstract

That retinitis occurs with some forms of toxemia of pregnancy is recognized. However, the clinical significance of such retinitis is not well understood. There have been two main sources of difficulty in the interpretation of its relation to the underlying disease: (1) the varying terminology used by ophthalmologists to describe and designate the retinitis, and (2) the varying classifications of toxemia by obstetricians and clinicians. Although greater uniformity is being gradually attained in both of these phases, it is still hard to avoid the rather meaningless term albuminuric retinitis, and it is still difficult immediately to classify individual cases of toxemia with absolute accuracy. It does not seem feasible at the present time to attempt to prove that retinal lesions occur exclusively in any one type of toxemia of pregnancy. It does seem, however, that the changes seen in the retinas of patients with toxemia are sufficiently constant to furnish,