Salus's sign is a
clinical sign
Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showin ...
in which deflection of retinal
venule
A venule is a very small blood vessel in the microcirculation that allows blood to return from the capillary beds to drain into the larger blood vessels, the veins. Venules range from 7μm to 1mm in diameter. Veins contain approximately 70% of ...
s can be seen on
fundoscopy
Ophthalmoscopy, also called funduscopy, is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope). It is done as part of an eye examination and may be done as par ...
occurring in patients with
hypertensive retinopathy
Hypertensive retinopathy is damage to the retina and retinal circulation due to high blood pressure (i.e. hypertension).
Signs and symptoms
Most patients with hypertensive retinopathy have no symptoms. However, some may report decreased or blurre ...
.
Arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis, which ...
causes shortening or lengthening of
arteriole
An arteriole is a small-diameter blood vessel in the microcirculation that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries.
Arterioles have muscular walls (usually only one to two layers of smooth muscle cells) and are the pri ...
s, which causes venules to be moved at points where arterioles and venules cross over. This is seen at right-angle crossing points, where the venule crosses the arteriole in a horseshoe shape.
The sign is named after
Robert Salus.
References
Medical signs
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