Study of age-related retinal hemodynamic changes by laser speckle flowgraphy

Background: Diagnostics of hemodynamic changes is important both for clarifying the features of the course of pathological process of many ophthalmic diseases and for optimizing treatment tactics. Laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) is a new non-invasive method for quantitative assessment of retinal blood flow. Aim: To study age-related changes of pulse waves both in large blood vessels and microvasculature in the optic nerve head and macula by laser speckle flowgraphy. Materials and methods: Age-related changes in blood flow were studied in 60 healthy volunteers using LSFG-RetFlow. We analyzed MBR — main parameter of pulse wave assessed by the laser speckle flowgraphy and also another 8 pulse wave parameters for large vessels and microvasculature in the areas of optic nerve head and macula. Results: The study revealed statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) age-related changes in pulse waves for most parameters under study. In the large vessels of the optic disc blood flow dropped after 60 years, while in the microvasculature it decreased progradiently in the groups older than 40 and 60 years. In the macular region, blood flow in large vessels and microvasculature decreased mainly in the group aged over 61. Age-related changes in pulse wave parameters were unidirectional for both large vessels and microvasculature; trends were similar in both areas under investigation. Conclusions: The study demonstrated statistically significant (age-related changes in most laser speckle flowgraphy pulse wave parameters. The MBR, MV (MBR of Vascular area), MT (MBR of Tissue area) indicators are most informative in the ophthalmic hemodinamic screening. The study of another pulse wave parameters seems sufficient for the general MBR.