Macular Blood Flow Velocity Measured by Blue-field Entoptoscopy and Heidelberg Retinal Flowmetry: Comparision of Two Different Techniques in a Group of Type I Diabetic Women During Pregnancy

Abstract

Purpose:: To compare macular capillary blood flow velocity measured with psychophysical blue field entoptic simulation (BFS) technique and confocal scanning laser flowmetry in diabetic women during pregnancy

Methods:: Macular capillary blood flow velocity was measured by blue-field entoptic simulation using an Oculix BFS-2000 V2.1 psychophysical system and confocal scanning laser flowmeter, Heidelberg Retinal Flowmetry (HRF, Heidelberg Engineering, GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany) in the right eyes of 34 Type I diabetic women during the third trimester.

Results:: The macular blood flow velocity measured with the BFS technique correlated significantly with both the 50^th percentile HRF velocity (r=0.383, p=0.025, n=34, Spearman's nonparametric correlation) and HRF flow (r=0.431, p=0.012, n=33) during the third trimester. However, there was no correlation between the BFS velocity and the 25^th, 75^th or 90^th percentiles of HRF measurements.

Conclusions:: BFS is known to be an experimental technique that provides a quantitative measure of flow in the perifoveal capillary network. On the other hand, HRF image reflects quantitative, multispectral, objective and noinvasive measurements, a 2-D projection of a 3-D retinal capillary bed. In our study, it was shown that the BFS measurements are comparable with the 50^th percentile HRF flow and velocity.

Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques • retina