Abstract
Purpose:
To evaluate the flow pattern of retinal arteries using Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) in a patient with Takayasu’s arteritis (TA).
Methods:
A forty-two-year old man presented with stagger and aortic insufficiency (AR). His best-corrected visual acuity was 20/20 bilaterally．Funduscopic examination of both eye showed dilation of retinal vessels and fluorescein angiogram (FA) showed small area of nonperfusion in peripheral retina in both eye.<br /> We measured Retinal blood flow (RBF) velocity profiles in all of retinal arteries (>50μm) using by Doppler OCT over one cardiac cycle. The measured arteries were chosen at the straight portion within 1/2 to 1 disc diameters from the optic disc. Two-dimensional velocity profiles were extracted to evaluate the retinal blood velocity profiles during a cardiac cycle.
Results:
A Doppler OCT revealed an abnormal flow profile at diastolic phase and a parabolic flow profile at systolic phase in all arteries. Total retinal blood flow was 32.7 μL/min.
Conclusions:
The current study first showed that Doppler OCT enables to evaluate an abnormal flow pattern by the blood velocity profiles and the total retinal blood flow in the retinal arterioles in a patient with TA and AR.