Retinal vascular profiles

Purpose It is our aim to study the retinal arterial and venous vascular profiles, in health and in arterial hypertension and glaucoma Methods The temporal arteries and veins were studied, from the optical disk margin to the first bifurcation,Their trajectory was pinpointed in a digital platform, and their coordinates in the two dimensional plane were noted.A polynomial function was found that was graphically equal to the profile, To compare polynomials, a Pearson correlation was used. The variables to be compared were the coefficients and the squares of x. The intercept of the regression line (on the y axis) made the distinction between arteries and veins, and between pathological entities studied. We used the t test, with P< .05 to analyze groups. Results NORMAL: 3 for the arteries and 2, 7 for the veins. HIPERTENSION: 4, 4 for the arteries and 4,6 for the veins. GLAUCOMA: eighteen eyes, all with primary open angle, two with pseudo exfoliation. We divided them in two groups: A with a stabilized clinical control and B with a degrading ophthalmological situation. The P values between intercepts of the arteries and the veins of the two groups were respectively 0,037 (<0, 05) and 0, 11 Conclusion The correlation between the coefficients and the squares seems to be characteristic for arterial hypertensive patients. For glaucoma patients, the low values of the arterial intercepts are characteristic of the group with worse response to medical and surgical therapy. Those with normal values stabilized their clinical glaucomatous condition with medical therapy.