Transesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis of branch retinal artery obstruction.

We examined a 28-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman with branch retinal artery obstruction. Both were examined exhaustively. In each patient, a patent foramen ovale was demonstrated by transesophageal echocardiography after a transthoracic study disclosed no abnormalities. These observations suggest that transesophageal echocardiography is valuable in examining young patients with retinal emboli in whom cardiac abnormalities are suspected.