Abstract
Purpose: :
Retinal function imaging for evaluating of changes in retinal blood flow following pan-retinal laser photocoagulation in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Methods: :
To evaluate the effect of pan-retinal laser photocoagulation (PRP) on retinal blood flow in eyes with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) using the Retinal Function Imager (RFI).
Results: :
20 eyes were enrolled. Mean age was 50.2 +/- 9.36 years (38 to 64 years). The mean venous velocity before PRP treatment was 2.82 +/- 0.61 mm/sec and after PRP treatment was 2.62 +/- 0.37 mm/sec. The results demonstrate a significant decrease in venous velocity following PRP treatment (p value =0.03). The venous velocity decreased by at least 14.04% in these patients. The mean arterial velocity before PRP treatment was 4.48 +/- 1.42 mm/sec and after PRP treatment was 4.46 +/- 1.57 mm/sec. Arterial velocity following PRP treatment showed inconsistent response to PRP treatment.
Conclusions: :
The RFI is novel non-invasive imaging system which allows for quantitative analysis of retinal blood flow. The results of this study suggest that PRP treatment may effect retinal blood flow by reducing venous velocity in proliferative diabetic retinopathy patients. Further analysis may help assess the utility of the RFI measurements of response to PRP as an indicator of suppression of PDR activity.
Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • diabetic retinopathy • laser