Retinal vessel pulse amplitude in health and disease

Abstract

Abstract Purpose End‐organ microvascular diseases is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the general population. There is however a lack of objective, quantitative methods for evaluation of microcirculation. We hypothesized that the systolodiastolic variation in vessel diameters may be an indicator of microvascular stiffness. Methods The amplitude of systolodiastolic variations of the diameters of temporal arterioles and venules were recorded using the Retinal Vessel Analyzer (RVA®)in 37 normal eyes, 19 eyes of arterial hypertensive patients, 16 eyes that had recovered from CRVO and 9 fellow normal eyes. A minimum of 20 cardiac cycles were averaged. Results In control eyes, the mean (±SD) pulse amplitude over the cardiac cycle was 1.9% (± 0.5) for arterioles and 3.3% (± 1.1) for venules. Reproducibility (mean (±SD) intersession difference; n=14) was 3% (± 0.4) for arterioles ( ICCs: ) and 2.5% (± 0.5) for venules, with ICCs of 0.94 (± 0.2) and 0.94 (± 0.3), respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between arterial pressure and venular relative pulse (r: 0.49; p < 0.01) but not with arteriolar pulse (r: ‐0.004; p= 0.9). The venular pulse amplitude was significantly lower in post‐CRVO eyes (1.4% ± 0.9; p<0.002). Conclusion Pulse amplitude of retinal venules, but not of arterioles, is positively correlated with arterial pressure, and negatively correlated with CRVO history. Additional basic and epidemiological studies are needed in order to determine if the measure of retinal vessel pulse amplitude is of interest for management or follow‐up of cardiovascular and eye diseases.