Comparison of Retinal Vascular Flow Parameters in Patients with Glaucoma and Vascular Retinopathy Using Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

Purpose : Vascular flow dynamic has been suggested to play an important role in different eye diseases. Advances in doppler optical coherence tomography (D-OCT) allow for the study of vascular flow parameters in the retinal arcades. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in retinal vascular flow parameters in persons with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), sickle cell disease (SCD), and healthy controls

Methods : This cross-sectional clinical study compared patients with POAG, SCD, and healthy controls with respect to average velocity (AV, mm/s), retinal blood flow (RBF, μL/min), and vessel diameter (VD, μm) using a prototype D-OCT (Topcon Corp., Tokyo, Japan) from November 2021 to December 2022. D-OCT measurements were performed at 2.0 - 3.5 millimeters from the optic disc. The 1 mm D-OCT scan was located perpendicular to the temporal arcades. AV, RBF, and VD measurements were registered for both artery and vein. Statistical tests were conducted to assess for differences across all three groups

Results : 100 eyes of 62 patients (37 healthy eyes, 51 POAG eyes, and 12 SCD eyes) were included. The mean (± SD) age of subjects was 51.0 ± 18.7 years. Among all three groups, there was a significant difference in the supero- and infero-temporal artery diameter (p < 0.05 and p = 0.002, respectively) and the infero-temporal vein diameter (p < 0.05). Significant differences in the mean AV, RBF and VD for both supero-temporal and infero-temporal arcades were found in the SCD group compared to the other two groups (Table 1). Post-hoc analysis revealed that SCD eyes had a marked difference in arterial RBF compared with healthy and POAG eyes. Also, there was a statistically significant decrease in the infero-temporal vein flow of POAG eyes (RBF: 6.8 ± 4.9 μL/min) compared to control eyes (RBF: 10.2 ± 5.1 μL/min) and SCD eyes (RBF: 13.1 ± 3.5 μL/min) (Figure 1)

Conclusions : This study showed significant differences in retinal vascular flow for patients with SCD and POAG compared to healthy controls. The SCD group had higher flow parameters for both the supero- and infero-temporal arcades while the POAG group had lower flow parameters for the infero-temporal arcade. D-OCT may be a clinically useful tool for quantifying blood flow anomalies in the temporal arcades of the retina for patients with POAG and SCD eyes

This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.

 

Demographics and vascular measurements

 

Retinal blood flow