During an eye examination i was asked to go to doctor and get blood pressure checked?

Question

as the vessels behind my eye were squashed,or narrowing,,what would cause this,,my blood pressure was fine

Answer 1

Maybe it's something slightly cutting the blood off from there. Go and check with the doctor to be sure.  It could be your retina.

Hope that helped some!

Answer 2

As to one of your other answerers -- blood pressure and intra ocular pressure are totally unrelated.  Your blood pressure will have NO EFFECT whatsoever on your intraocular pressure.  

Having said this, there is a reason your eye doctor sent you in for blood pressure testing.  GENERALLY SPEAKING, normal blood vessels in the eye have a 2/3 artery/vein diameter relationship.  What this means is that in MOST people the arteries in the retina are about 2/3 the diamter of the veins.  Also, at locations where the arteries and veins may cross each other in the retina, the artery generally does not "pinch" or narrow the vein it crosses.

High blood pressure, though, can cause an attenuation (thinning) of the artery so as to result in more like a 1/2 artery vein ratio.  Also, high blood pressure can cause any vein being crossed by an artery to appear "pinched".  If your doctor saw this he may have been concerned about possible high blood pressure.  But remember, some people can have smaller artery vein ratios and pinching at veinous crossing and not have high blood pressure.  In these cases, it is just a variance of normalcy.

Answer 3

The eye doctor must have noted that the pressure in your eyes was high.  This can be caused by high blood pressure. Your eye doctor wanted to rule that out.  The cause of high eye pressure is usually glaucoma or the onset of it.  You mentioned "narrowing" that is caused by glaucoma. It is the angles in your eye narrowing and causing an increase in pressure of the fluid in your eyes.  Here is a great description of glaucoma:

Internal pressure in your eye, called intraocular pressure, allows your eye to hold its shape and function properly. Intraocular pressure is like air in a balloon - too much pressure inside the balloon affects its shape and may even cause it to pop. In the case of your eye, too much pressure can damage the optic nerve.

Fluids inside your eye help maintain the intraocular pressure. These fluids are the vitreous, which fills the vitreous cavity at the back of your eye, and the aqueous humor, which fills the anterior chamber at the front of your eye. Aqueous humor is continuously produced and circulated through the anterior chamber before draining out of your eye. This continuous flow of fluid nourishes the lens and the cornea and also removes unwanted debris. A healthy eye produces aqueous humor at the same rate that it drains fluid, thus maintaining a normal pressure.

I hope this helps.  Does anyone in your family have glaucoma?  

It is not something to be left untreated.  You will need to see an Ophthalmologist and get on the proper course of treatment.  Good luck.

Actually, there is indeed SOME relationship to blood pressure and IOP.  It has been studied and documented for years.

INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE, CARDIOVASCULAR RISK VARIABLES, AND VISUAL FIELD DEFECTS

M. CRISTINA LESKE1, and MARVIN J. PODGOR2

1Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Health Sciences Center, 3L 099, State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794

2Office of Biometry and Epidemiology, National Eye Institute Bethesda, MD

Address for reprint requests.

Leske, M. C. (School of Medicine, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794) and M. J. Podgor. Intraocular pressure, cardiovascular risk variables, and visual field defects.

This study evaluates the associations of intraocular pressure with cardiovascular risk factors among 2433 participants in the Framingham Eye Study and the Framingham Heart Study. Persons with intraocular pressure >21 mmHg in at least one eye had an increased prevalence of hypertension and diabetes; no association was found with cardiovascular disease. In multiple regression analysis, systolic blood pressure was the variable most related to intraocular pressure; vertical cup/disc ratio, diabetes, and ventricular rate were also independently related to intraocular pressure. About 6% of the variation in intraocular pressure was explained by these variables. Although blood pressure was associated with intraocular pressure in eyes without visual defects, ratios of blood pressure to intraocular pressure were lower in eyes with visual field defects than in eyes without field defects.

While it is usually retinal photography that has us sending patients to their GP's for hypertension evlauation, we will also seek a medical history on a patient with high IOP's, to rule out other causes for high IOP's besides glaucoma.  To say there is NO relationship between high IOP's and BP is very alarming.  Good luck.