TY - JOUR
T1 - Longitudinal changes of ocular blood flow using laser speckle flowgraphy during normal pregnancy
AU - Sato, Takahiro
AU - Sugawara, Junichi
AU - Aizawa, Naoko
AU - Iwama, Noriyuki
AU - Takahashi, Fumiaki
AU - Nakamura-Kurakata, Michiyo
AU - Saito, Masatoshi
AU - Sugiyama, Takashi
AU - Kunikata, Hiroshi
AU - Nakazawa, Toru
AU - Yaegashi, Nobuo
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by a JST grant from JSPS KAKENHI Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (M.K. 26861306). The funder had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Written informed consent for participation in the research for this prospective study was obtained from all patients. The institutional review board of Tohoku University Hospital approved this study (2012-2-108-1). The principal investigator, Dr. Takahiro Sato, had full access to all the data in this study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. The authors would like to express our gratitude to Fumiaki Takahashi (Clinical Research, Innovation and education center, Tohoku University Hospital), Hirohito Metoki (Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University) for their support of the statistical analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Sato et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - Purpose: Innovative laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) enables noninvasive evaluation of retinal microcirculation and the usefulness has been reported in the field of ophthalmology. LSFG has allowed us to measure the real time changes of retinal blood flow without pupillary dilatations and contrast media. Herein, we investigated the change of retinal blood flow in normal pregnant women during gestation using LSFG. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted in 53 pregnant women who visited our institution between January, 2013 and July, 2014. Finally, a total of 41 participants without any obstetric complications were available for evaluation. Retinal blood flow was measured with LSFG in a total of 4 times during pregnancy (T1. 11-13 weeks, T2. 19-21 weeks, T3. 28-30 weeks, T4. 34-36 weeks) and mean blur rate (MBR), blowout score (BOS), flow acceleration index (FAI), and resistive index (RI) are analyzed from these measurements. Relations between LSFG parameters and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) are determined throughout pregnancy. Results: MBR showed no significant changes throughout pregnancy. BOS showed a tendency to increase in the 3rd trimester. FAI values showed a slight increase from the 1st to 2nd trimester while a significant decrease was noted in the 3rd trimester. RI exhibited no changes between the 1st and 2nd trimesters, values decreased significantly after the 3rd trimester. MAP was positively correlated with BOS, and negatively correlated with FAI and RI. Conclusion: The present study clearly demonstrated that profiles of LSFG parameters demonstrated a decrease of resistance in retinal blood vessels. These changes in indices provide a highly sensitive reflection of physiological changes in vascular resistance due to pregnancy. Thus, LSFG may be useful, as a non-invasive, diagnostic tool to detect pregnancy related disorders such as preeclampsia.
AB - Purpose: Innovative laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) enables noninvasive evaluation of retinal microcirculation and the usefulness has been reported in the field of ophthalmology. LSFG has allowed us to measure the real time changes of retinal blood flow without pupillary dilatations and contrast media. Herein, we investigated the change of retinal blood flow in normal pregnant women during gestation using LSFG. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted in 53 pregnant women who visited our institution between January, 2013 and July, 2014. Finally, a total of 41 participants without any obstetric complications were available for evaluation. Retinal blood flow was measured with LSFG in a total of 4 times during pregnancy (T1. 11-13 weeks, T2. 19-21 weeks, T3. 28-30 weeks, T4. 34-36 weeks) and mean blur rate (MBR), blowout score (BOS), flow acceleration index (FAI), and resistive index (RI) are analyzed from these measurements. Relations between LSFG parameters and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) are determined throughout pregnancy. Results: MBR showed no significant changes throughout pregnancy. BOS showed a tendency to increase in the 3rd trimester. FAI values showed a slight increase from the 1st to 2nd trimester while a significant decrease was noted in the 3rd trimester. RI exhibited no changes between the 1st and 2nd trimesters, values decreased significantly after the 3rd trimester. MAP was positively correlated with BOS, and negatively correlated with FAI and RI. Conclusion: The present study clearly demonstrated that profiles of LSFG parameters demonstrated a decrease of resistance in retinal blood vessels. These changes in indices provide a highly sensitive reflection of physiological changes in vascular resistance due to pregnancy. Thus, LSFG may be useful, as a non-invasive, diagnostic tool to detect pregnancy related disorders such as preeclampsia.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0173127
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0173127
M3 - Article
C2 - 28257508
AN - SCOPUS:85014440182
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 12
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 3
M1 - e0173127
ER -