Question

You should assume that all stroke patients in this activity are experiencing dysfunction due to the lack of oxygen to the affected area which caused damage to those neurons and they are no longer functioning. Explain the effect of each?

1. Your patient has had a stroke that has right optic nerve.
2. A virus is killing astrocytes.
3. An autoimmune disorder is killing oligodendrocytes.

Answer 1

The optic nerve connects eyes to your brain. It carries the visual messages to brain. In optic nerve stroke the blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen to this nerve get blocked or too narrow, which causes sudden loss of vision.

After an optic nerve stroke, the patient may have permanent loss of some vision in one eye.

The most common type of optic nerve stroke may be caused by narrowed or blocked arteries or by a fall in blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the optic nerve.

higher risk for this type of optic nerve stroke are:

• A small optic nerve
• Diabetes
• Infections such as herpes zoster or syphilis
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol