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. 2020 Jun 13;9(6):1847.
doi: 10.3390/jcm9061847.

Deterioration of Retinal Blood Flow Parameters in Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion Measured by Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography Flowmeter

Kengo Takahashi  1 , Youngseok Song  1 , Kenji Sogawa  1 , Takafumi Yoshioka  1 , Tomofumi Tani  1 , Satoshi Ishiko  1 , Akitoshi Yoshida  1
Affiliations

Deterioration of Retinal Blood Flow Parameters in Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion Measured by Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography Flowmeter

Kengo Takahashi et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Doppler optical coherence tomography (DOCT) flowmeter can be used to measure retinal blood flow (RBF) parameters, including vessel diameter, blood velocity, and the absolute value of RBF within 2.0 s. We investigated the RBF parameters in eyes with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) using a DOCT flowmeter.

Methods: Seventeen patients with unilateral BRVO were enrolled. All subjects underwent comprehensive ophthalmologic examinations. The RBF parameters were assessed from three veins, i.e., (1) an occluded vein, (2) a non-occluded vein in the BRVO eyes, and (3) an equivalent (superior or inferior) vein in the fellow eye (non-affected vein), using prototype DOCT flowmeter (Topcon, Tokyo, Japan). Moreover, the correlation between RBF parameters and the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was examined. We investigated the correlation between (1) the RBF parameters and the time from the initial visit, (2) the RBF parameters and the time from the last injection, and (3) the RBF parameters and the number of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections (VEGF).

Results: The diameter of the occluded vein (95.9 ± 24.7 µm) was smaller than that of the non-occluded vein (127.9 ± 23.7 µm) and that of the healthy veins (116.4 ± 13.9 µm). The RBF was lower in the occluded veins (4.7 ± 3.7 µL/min) than that in the non-occluded veins (10.3 ± 5.1 µL/min; p < 0.01) and in the fellow eyes (8.6 ± 4.0 µL/min; p = 0.013). In contrast, the blood velocity was not significantly different among the three types of veins. BCVA was correlated with the diameter of the occluded vein (ρ = 0.711, p = 0.001) but not with the RBF and blood velocity. The time from the initial visit, the time from the last injection, and the total number of anti-VEGF injections were not associated with any RBF parameters on the occluded vein.

Conclusions: The RBF was significantly lower in the occluded veins than that in the other veins, and the diameter of the occluded vein was significantly smaller than that of the other veins in patients with BRVO. However, neither the time from the initial visit, nor the time from the last injection, nor the number of anti-VEGF injections were correlated with the RBF parameters on the occluded vein.

Keywords: Doppler optical coherence tomography; branch retinal vein occlusion; retinal blood flow.

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Conflict of interest statement

A.Y. has the patent for the DOCT flowmeter (Patent Number: 2013-184018) in Japan. Other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow of the image used to measure the retinal blood flow on a Doppler optical coherence tomography flowmeter. (A) Color fundus photograph. The bar indicates the measured location on occluded (orange) and non-occluded (blue) veins. (B) Phase images with color coding showing the blood flow signals of the vessels on the occluded (orange bar) and non-occluded (blue bar) veins. The numbers indicate the vessel diameter (µm). (C) Retinal blood flow (RBF) velocity profiles of the retinal veins within 2 s measured by a Doppler optical coherence tomography (DOCT) flowmeter on the occluded (superior) and non-occluded (inferior) veins; the colored numbers indicate the averaged blood velocity (orange: occluded vein; blue: non-occluded vein).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlations between the retinal blood flow of the occluded vein and the best corrected visual acuity. RBF, retinal blood flow; BCVA, best corrected visual acuity; ρ, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.
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