Abstract
PURPOSE: Dilation of retinal vessels in response to diffuse luminance flicker may
reflect endothelial function. Although this has previously been shown to be
reproducible in whites, there have been no similar data in Asians. We assess the
reproducibility of repeated measurements of this response in Asians. MATERIAL AND
METHODS: Healthy Asians (n = 33) with normal vision and no history of glaucoma,
age-related macular degeneration, cataract, or retinal arterial/venous occlusion
participated in this study. Repeated measures from the same subjects were taken
30-60 min apart using the Dynamic Vessel Analyser (DVA, IMEDOS, Jena, Germany).
Modification was made to the shape of the light source for Asian participants.
Correlations of the first and second measures were assessed using Pearson
correlation (R(2)), and agreement between the two measures was shown using
Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS: After modification to the shape of the light source,
almost perfect correlation was found between the 1st and 2nd measurements of
baseline arteriolar (R(2) = 0.95) and venular diameters (R(2) = 0.98) of
arteriolar maximum dilation (R(2) = 0.85). Substantially high correlation between
the 1st and 2nd measurements of venular maximum dilation was found (R(2) = 0.80).
CONCLUSIONS: Measurements of the dilation response of retinal vessels to diffuse
luminance flicker an Asian sample using the DVA show high reproducibility for
repeated measures over a short period of time. Such measurements may allow
non-invasive quantification of endothelial function to study its association with
systemic and ocular diseases.
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