Abstract

DO.14.05

Difference of retinal vasomotion and venous pulsation in healthy volunteers and untreated glaucoma patients

Kotliar K.¹, Vilser W.², Specht H.¹, Lanzl I.^1
1Department of Ophthalmology, Technical University Munich, ²Biomedical Engineering, Technical University Ilmenau

Objective: Continuous signals can be mathematically analysed using cross- and autocorellation analysis. Vessel diameter of retinal arteries and veins in untreated glaucoma patients and age matched healthy volunteers were measured continuously with the Dynamic Vessel Analyzer (DVA, Fa. IMEDOS, Jena). The data was analysed and compared by signal processing.
Methods: Time dependent retinal vessel reaction was measured in the right eye of 11 glaucoma patients 58,0 (53,0; 66,5) years old (median(1quartile; 3quartile)) and 11 medically healthy seniors 61,5 (53,0; 66,3) years old. Vessel diameters of a retinal arterial and venous vessel segment were examined with DVA during 40 seconds in all subjects. Temporal vessel behaviour was evaluated using methods of signal analysis. Oscillatory changes of vessel diameter were divided into high-frequent with a period of <1,5 s and low-frequent with a period of ³1,5 s.
Results: In arteries there was a significant difference in the duration of a single low-frequency oscillation between both groups (p<0,05). It amounted to 1,9 (0,9; 4,5) s in glaucoma patients and to 6,7 (4,1; 9,4) s in healthy seniors. In veins high-frequency oscillations show a significantly less expressed periodicity in glaucoma patients than in normals (p<0,05). The rate of periodicity amounted to 0,105 (0,062; 0,154) and 0,208 (0,096; 0,405) respectively.
Conclusions: Low-frequency oscillations include myogenic vasomotions with a period of 6-15 s. They were well expressed in healthy seniors and almost absent in glaucoma patients. This might be a reason for vascular disorders in glaucoma. High-frequency oscillations of vessel diameter correspond to the heart pulse rate. Thus the high-frequency changes in venous diameter correspond to the venous pulsation. Elevated intraocular pressure may lead to decreased intensity of the venous pulsation in glaucoma patients.

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