Survey and comparative study of retinal vein occlusion risk factors

39 cases of retinal vein occlusion that sequentially attended to eye clinic in 3 years enrolled in this study. The hypertension, cigarette smoking, mean plasma homocystein and age-range in retinal vein occlusion category were compared with 49 controls. 19 cases had Branch retinal vein occlusion and 20 have Central retinal vein occlusion, 15 of them were female and the remainder (24) was male 17 cases had left eye involvement and one has bilateral involvement. Except 5 cases, most of the patients had at least one of 3 systemic diseases (Hypertension, Diabetes, and hyperlipidemia). The mean plasma homocystein level in cases was 15, 39 μmol/l and in controls it was 15.95 which was not statistically significant. (p=0.42). The mean plasma homocystein level was above the normal in 21 cases (13.0 μmol/l) and in 28 control subjects. This study showed that retinal vein occlusion is mostly associated with one of the systemic diseases. We could not find also statistically significant relation between homocysteine level and retinal vein occlusion in this study.