Fig. 3.

Emotional stress and the “Flammer Syndrome”. The term Flammer Syndrome (FS) describes a phenotype characterized by the presence of primary vascular dysregulation with a cluster of additional symptoms and signs. Symptoms and signs include the following: prolonged sleep onset time, prolonged blood flow cessation in the finger capillaries after cooling, disturbed autoregulation of ocular blood flow, increased prevalence of optic disc hemorrhages and activated retinal astrocytes, increased retinal venous pressure, increased stiffness of retinal vessels, higher spatial irregularities in retinal vessels, increased resistance in retroocular vessels, increased oxidative stress, altered gene expression as measured in lymphocytes, and altered activity of the autonomic nervous system (beat-to-beat variations of the heart).