CRAO Comes with Higher Inflammatory White Blood Cell Counts, Research Finds

Overproduction of white blood cells can cause inflammation in the retina, causing vessel inflammation, increased blood viscosity and damage to the vascular endothelium. Further research on this relationship may yield serum biomarkers that could aid management of CRAO (pictured) and BRAO. Photo: Rami Aboumourad, OD. Click image to enlarge. A recent study from Wuhan, China found that patients with central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) showed higher leukocyte counts, higher lymphocyte percentages and lower neutrophil percentages than patients with branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO).Researchers conducted a retrospective observational study of 363 patients diagnosed with retinal artery occlusion. They gathered demographic clinical and laboratory data from electronic medical records at a Wuhan hospital. They used routine blood tests performed at the time of initial presentation, as well as related medical tests, and separated patients into groups based on the type of retinal artery occlusions patients possessed. They also stratified patients by sex and age. The group included 320 people with CRAO and 43 patients with BRAO. Participants averaged 57.7 years old in the central group and 55.3 in the branch group. Men made up 69% of the CRVO cases and 63% of the BRVO cases. Rates of systemic diseases stayed similar across groups. Current smoking and alcohol consumption occurred more often in CRAO cases at 31% and 20.3%, respectively, compared to 16% and 11.6% in BRAO cases. Researchers excluded patients with active infections, malignancies or “severe hepatic or renal dysfunction.”The researchers noted that “CRAO patients exhibited significantly higher leukocyte and lymphocyte levels compared with BRAO, but paradoxically lower neutrophil percentages.” Monocyte and eosinophil percentages, however, showed no meaningful differences. The BRAO group demonstrated a higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. These modest shifts suggested broader systemic inflammatory involvement in central cases and more localized neutrophil activity in branch cases, and these patterns remained consistent across sex and age subgroups.Click here for the journal source. Mahdi A, Xiao X. Comparative peripheral inflammatory biomarker profiles in central and branch retinal artery occlusion: a retrospective study. BMC Ophthalmol. March 4, 2026. [Epub ahead of print]. This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.