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Ocular blood flow in diabetes
Author(s) -
GARHOFER G
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2010.2422.x
Subject(s) - diabetes mellitus , medicine , diabetic retinopathy , blood flow , disease , microcirculation , endothelial dysfunction , pathogenesis , blindness , dysfunctional family , retinopathy , ophthalmology , endocrinology , optometry , clinical psychology
Diabetes is among the most prominent reasons for developing blindness in industrialized nations. In the recent years there is cumulating evidence that a dysfunctional ocular microcirculation is involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Although ocular blood flow in diabetic retinopathy has been thoroughly investigated, the reported results are inconsistent. This may be at least partially be related to the fact that blood flow is dependent on the severity of the disease. In particular, most of the studies, but not all report an increased ocular blood flow in early stages of diabetic retinopathy whereas blood flow seems to be decreased in the proliferative form of the disease. More importantly, it has been shown that beside changes in baseline flow, endothelial dysfunction is present even in very early stages of the disease. Based on this observation it has been hypothesized that endothelial dysfunction may precede other diabetes related complications. In this talk our current knowledge about blood flow regulation in patients with diabetes will be summarized.