Abstract
Purpose: :
It is known that several common eye diseases are associated with ocular perfusion abnormalities. Moxaverine is used in the therapy of perfusion abnormalities in the brain, the heart and the extremities because of its direct vasodilatory effects. The present study seeked to investigate whether moxaverine alters ocular blood flow in healthy volunteers after intravenous administration.
Methods: :
16 healthy volunteers were included in a randomized, double masked, placebo-controlled two way cross-over study. 150 mg moxaverine (Ursapharm, Saarbrücken, Germany) was administered intravenously over 30 minutes. Systemic hemodynamics and ocular blood flow was measured before and up to 90 minutes after administration of moxaverine. Retinal arterial and venous diameters were measured with a Retinal Vessel Analyzer. Retinal blood velocity was assessed with laser Doppler velocimetry and choroidal and optic nerve head blood flow were measured with laser Doppler flowmetry.
Results: :
After drug administration, red blood cell velocity and optic nerve head blood flow tended to increase by 13.6 ± 13.3% and 11.8 ± 12.7%, but this effect was not significant versus placebo. However, choroidal blood flow increased by 22.6 ± 27.9% (p=0.015) after administration of moxaverine. Neither moxaverine nor placebo had an effect on retinal arterial diameters. Retinal venous diameters tended to increase (2.6 ± 2.8%) after administration of moxaverine, but this effect was not significant versus placebo (p=0.12). Retinal blood flow increased after infusion of moxaverine (19.6 ± 16.5%), but again this effect did not reach the level of significance (p=0.12) most likely due to the small numbers of subjects.
Conclusions: :
Our data indicate an increase in ocular blood flow parameters after systemic administration of a single dose of moxaverine in healthy subjects. Further studies are needed to investigate whether moxaverine increases blood flow in patients with ocular vascular disease.
Clinical Trial: :
www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00569621
Keywords: choroid • retina