Christiansen CB, et al. - Researchers investigated the risk of new onset atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with known retinal artery occlusion (RAO) and retinal venous occlusion (RVO) in order to gain clarity regarding the inter-relationships of AF to retinal vascular occlusions. Using Danish nationwide registries, patients with retinal occlusions from 1997 to 2011 were identified and matched 1:5 according to sex and age. For hypertension, diabetes, vascular disease and prior stroke/systemic thromboembolism/transient ischemic attack, hazard ratios (HR) of AF according to retinal vascular occlusion were adjusted. A new diagnosis of retinal vascular occlusion in patients without prior AF was found to be related to increased risk of incident AF. This was specifically seen in patients with RAO. Clinicians are being advised to be aware of AF in patients with retinal vascular occlusions.