Assessment of Blood Flow Velocity in Retinal Vasculitis Using the Retinal Function Imager—A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the Retinal Function Imager (RFI) for visualizing retinal vasculature and assessment of blood flow characteristics in patients with retinal vasculitis. The RFI is a non-invasive imaging device measuring the blood flow velocity (BFV) in secondary and tertiary retinal vessels using hemoglobin as an intrinsic motion-contrast agent. Methods: To test the feasibility of the RFI for patients with retinal vasculitis, capillary perfusion maps (nCPMs) were generated from 15 eyes of eight patients (five females; mean age: 49 ± 12 years) with a mean uveitis duration of 74 ± 85 months. Five of these patients had birdshot chorioretinopathy, and three had primarily non-occlusive venous retinal vasculitis of unknown origin. To reflect that the BFV may be more reduced in patients with prolonged disease, patients were classified into a short-term (uveitis duration: 8–15 months) and a long-term uveitis group (uveitis duration: 60–264 months). Data were compared with healthy controls (16 eyes of 11 patients; mean age 45 ± 12 years; 8 females). Results: The mean BFV in the controls was 3.79 ± 0.50 mm/s in the retinal arteries and 2.35 ± 0.44 mm/s in the retinal veins, which was significantly higher compared to the retinal vasculitis group. Patients revealed an arterial BFV of 2.75 ± 0.74 mm/s (p < 0.001) and a venous BFV of 1.75 ± 0.51 mm/s (p = 0.016). In the short-term group, a trend towards a decreased venular and arteriolar BFV was seen, while a significant reduction was observed in the long-term group. The patients’ microvasculature anatomy revealed by the nCPMs appeared unevenly distributed and a lower number of blood vessels were seen, along with a lower degree of complexity of their branching patterns, when compared with controls. Conclusions: This study demonstrated a reduction in venular and arteriolar BFVs in patients with retinal vasculitis. BFV alterations were already observed in early disease stages and became more pronounced in progressed disease. Additionally, we showed that retinal microvasculature changes may be observed by nCPMs. Retinal imaging with the RFI may serve as a diagnostic and quantifying tool in retinal vasculitis.