No abstract

Many studies have reported the effect of hypertension on microcirculation of the retina. Advance of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) allows us more detailed observations of microcirculation of the retina. Therefore, we compared OCTA parameters between chronic hypertension (disease duration of at least 10 yrs; Group A, 45 eyes), relieved hypertensive retinopathy (grade IV HTNR < 1 yr prior; Group B, 40 eyes), and normal controls [Group C (50 eyes) ≥ 50 yrs old and Group D (50 eyes) < 50 yrs old]. A 3 × 3 mm macular scan was performed in each group by OCTA. In vessel density of 3 mm full, group A and B were significantly decreased compared to normal control group (Group A vs. C; 19.4 mm−1 vs. 20.1 mm−1, Group B vs. D; 19.8 mm−1 vs. 21.8 mm−1, all p < 0.05). In foveal avascular zone, group A and B were significantly increased compared to normal control group (Group A vs. C; 0.35 mm2 vs. 0.30 mm2, Group B vs. D; 0.36 mm2 vs. 0.29 mm2, all p < 0.05). OCTA is useful for examining retinal microcirculatory changes in hypertension and we confirmed that hypertension affects the OCTA parameters. Considering the effect of hypertension on the change of microvasculature, care is required in the interpretation of OCTA parameters in various ophthalmic condition.

Substitution of white with orange fleshed varieties of sweet potatoes (OFSP) was recently shown to alleviate vitamin A deficiency in children in Africa. However, the relationship between beta-carotene (BC) content of different cultivars of OFSP and its bioavailability is unknown. Here, we used the three phase (oral, gastric and small intestinal) in vitro digestion procedure to examine the bioaccessibility of BC from eight cultivars of boiled OFSP. All-trans BC (all-E-BC) was the only isomer of BC detected in raw roots for cultivars of OFSP with amounts ranging from 112 to 281 microg/g. Boiling OFSP decreased all-E-BC content by 11% with conversion to 13-cis BC (13-Z-BC). The efficiency of BC micellarization during simulated digestion of boiled OFSP was only 0.6-3%. Addition of soybean oil (2% vol/wt) to boiled OFSP prior to in vitro digestion more than doubled partitioning of all-E-BC in the micelle fraction for all cultivars. The relatively poor bioaccessibility of all-E-BC was not a limitation of the in vitro model as micellarization was proportional to amount of OFSP digested from 0.5 to 3.0 g and minimally altered by increasing bile salt content during small intestinal digestion. Moreover, micellarization of all-E-BC from boiled fresh OFSP and commercially processed OFSP was significantly less than from carrots processed identically. These results indicate the need for further efforts to elucidate the basis for relatively poor bioaccessibility of BC from OFSP.

The quality of the scan image is important in microvascular circulation analysis using optical coherence tomography (OCTA). We aimed to investigate the effect of signal strength (SS) on OCTA metrics and minimum SS level that could be considered optimal. Macular 6 × 6 mm angiography images were acquired, and all subjects were divided into four groups according to the SS (SS 7, SS 8, SS 9, and SS 10) of the OCTA image. Vessel density (VD), perfusion density (PD), and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) metrics of the superficial capillary plexus were compared. In total, 446 eyes from young healthy subjects were included. As the SS increased from 7 to 10, the VD and PD of the total area, and the FAZ area increased significantly (all, p < 0.001), but there were no significant difference between SS 9 and SS 10 in all metrics. Correlation analysis between the SS and each parameter showed a high correlation coefficient (VD, r = 0.668; PD, r = 0.671; FAZ area, r = 0.570; all, p < 0.001). The measurements of VD, PD, and FAZ using OCTA varied significantly with the SS, and at least 9 of SS is recommended. The physician should be careful in the analyses of OCTA measurements showing different values of the SS.

Internal limiting membrane peeling seems to prevent the occurrence of a postoperative ERM in patients with primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.