1. Vascular resistance of carotid and vertebral arteries is associated with retinal microcirculation measured by laser speckle flowgraphy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Author
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Tomohito Izumi, Akira Endo, Kei Takahashi, Junta Imai, Masayuki Yasuda, Hiroshi Kunikata, Junpei Yamamoto, Shinichiro Hosaka, Shinjiro Kodama, Toru Nakazawa, Satoko Tsuchiya, Yuichiro Munakata, Yohei Kawana, Satoko Kurosawa, Hideki Katagiri, Azusa Ito, Keizo Kaneko, Hiroto Sugawara, Shojiro Sawada, and Yoichiro Asai
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Cervical Artery ,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism ,Hemodynamics ,030209 endocrinology & metabolism ,Microcirculation ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Endocrinology ,Retinal Diseases ,Ophthalmology ,Internal Medicine ,medicine ,Laser-Doppler Flowmetry ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Prospective Studies ,Vertebral Artery ,business.industry ,Microangiopathy ,Retinal Vessels ,Retinal ,General Medicine ,Diabetic retinopathy ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Carotid Arteries ,chemistry ,Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ,Vascular resistance ,Female ,business ,Retinopathy - Abstract
Aims Evaluation of the retinal microcirculation is key to understanding retinal vasculopathies, such as diabetic retinopathy. Laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) has recently enabled us to directly evaluate the vascular resistance in both retinal vessels and capillaries, non-invasively. We therefore assessed whether retinal vessel blood flow and/or the capillary microcirculation are associated with blood flow in the cervical arteries in diabetic patients without severe retinopathy. Methods We enrolled 110 type 2 diabetes patients, with no or mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, in this prospective cross-sectional study. We measured the resistivity indices (RIs) of the retinal vessel and capillaries by LSFG and those of cervical arteries by Doppler ultrasonography, followed by analyzing associations. Results The RIs of not only the carotid but also vertebral arteries were associated with those of retinal vessel blood flow and the retinal capillary microcirculation. Multiple regression analyses revealed these associations to be independent of other explanatory variables including age and diabetes duration. Conclusions We obtained novel and direct evidence demonstrating a close association between the retinal microcirculation and cervical artery hemodynamics in diabetic patients. These findings suggest shared mechanisms to underlie micro- and macro-angiopathies. Thus, high vascular resistance of cervical arteries may be a risk of developing retinopathy.
- Published
- 2020