Background: Although transient cortical blindness is a rare complication following cerebral angiography, identification of risk factors for the development of transient cortical blindness after cerebral angiography is an important clinical issue.
Material and methods: Between January 2008 and April 2018, 5,126 patients at five high-volume medical centers who underwent cerebral angiography procedures were enrolled in this multicenter cohort study. Patient baseline characteristics and surgery-related factors were analyzed. We used multivariate logistic regression to examine factors associated with transient cortical blindness.
Results: Eighteen patients (0.35%) in the total cohort of 5,126 suffered transient cortical blindness. After univariate statistical analysis, no significant differences were determined between the transient cortical blindness group and the control group regarding gender ( p = 0.454), age ( p = 0.872), smoking ( p = 0.170), diabetes ( p = 0.800), and hypertension ( p = 0.100). Compared with the control group, the transient cortical blindness group weighed less ( p = 0.020), and had a larger dose of contrast agent ( p = 0.034) and more instances of contrast agent injected into the posterior circulation ( p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis identified contrast agent dose and contrast agent injected into posterior circulation as independent predictive factors for transient cortical blindness ( P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Larger doses off contrast agent and contrast agent injected into the posterior circulation are potential independent predictive factors for transient cortical blindness following cerebral angiography.