Calculation of central retinal artery diameters from non‐invasive ocular haemodynamic measurements in type 1 diabetes patients

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Purpose: The aim of the study was to compare the diameter of the central retinal artery (CRA) between patients with diabetes mellitus and healthy subjects in vivo. CRA diameters were calculated from retinal haemodynamic parameters measured with noninvasive measurement techniques.Methods: Sixteen patients with type 1 diabetes with no or mild diabetic retinopathy and 16 age-matched healthy controls were included in this study. Total retinal blood flow was assessed by combining bidirectional laser Doppler velocimetry in all veins entering the optic disc with measurements of retinal vessel diameters using a Dynamic Vessel Analyser. Blood flow velocity in the CRA was measured with colour Doppler imaging (CDI). The diameter of the CRA in the optic nerve was then calculated for each subject using the individual ocular haemodynamic data.Results: Calculated CRA diameters were significantly larger in patients with diabetes (180 ± 13 lm) compared with healthy controls (166 ± 10 lm, p = 0.001). No significant differences were found in retinal blood flow, retinal artery or vein diameters or mean flow velocity of the CRA. Conclusion:The data of the present study show increased calculated CRA diameter in patients with type 1 diabetes with no or mild retinopathy. Blood flow velocity measurements in retrobulbar vessels using CDI need to be interpreted with caution in terms of retinal blood flow, because no information about vessel diameters is obtained by this technique.

Diabetic macular ischaemia is associated with narrower retinal arterioles in patients with type 2 diabetes

“…Further research on DMI could focus on using other non‐invasive haemodynamic measurement techniques (Pemp et al. ) and measuring vessel calibres at different points in the vascular branching network, which may be differently affected (Torring et al. ).…”

Optical coherence tomography‐based retinal vessel analysis for the evaluation of hypertensive vasculopathy

“…As early as 1974, Parr and Spear proposed the central retinal equivalent for arteries (Parr & Spears 1974a,b) that was extended to retinal veins by Hubbard et al in 1999(Hubbard et al 1999. Later on, several computer-based measurements were programmed and evaluated in epidemiological as well as in clinical and experimental studies (Wong et al 2004;Benavent et al 2009;Cheung et al 2010;Garcia-Ortiz et al 2012;Papadopoulou et al 2012;Pemp et al 2013;Schuster et al 2013).…”

“…These devices are further developments based either on fourier-domain or spectral domain OCTs, for example using a circumpapillary double circular scan around the optic nerve head, then integrating the data into parameters for retinal blood flow Zotter et al 2011;Konduru et al 2012;Tan et al 2012;Pemp et al 2013). In contrast to these devices that determine dynamic blood flow parameters, our method evaluates a static situation of the retinal vasculature, providing quantitative analysis of peripapillary retinal vessels diameter.…”

Blood Vessel Diameter Measurement on Retinal Image

“…Generalized and focal retinal arteriolar narrowing and arteriovenous nicking have been shown to be strongly associated with current and past hypertension reflecting the transient and In all the above cases, it should be note that the interst is the changing in the width along the vessel and not the absolute diameter. Pemp et al (2013) Introduced a method to measuring width of central retinal artery from noninvasive ocular hemodynamic measurements for diabetes patients. These diameters compared with blood vessels diameter of healthy peoples.…”