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Retinal vascular changes after vitrectomy for idiopathic epiretinal membrane: a pilot study with dynamic vessel analysis

  • Retinal Disorders
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate, using the Dynamic Vessel Analyzer (DVA), the retinal vascular changes that may occur after vitrectomy for idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM).

Methods

Twenty-six eyes of 13 patients affected by unilateral idiopathic ERM were prospectively analyzed. 13 fellow eyes were used as control. The static (central retinal artery and vein equivalents) and dynamic (after flicker light stimulus) DVA analysis was performed at baseline (1 day before surgery) and 6 months after vitrectomy.

Results

The static DVA analysis did not highlight any significant change between investigational eyes and controls at baseline and 6 months after surgery. The DVA dynamic analysis showed similar arterial flicker response between cases and controls at baseline (p = 0.3396), but disclosed a significant reduction of the arterial flicker response after surgery in the study eyes compared to fellow eyes (p = 0.0024).

No significant changes were appreciated in the venous flicker response after surgery between cases and controls, both at baseline (p = 0.3450) and at the follow-up examination (p = 0.4214).

Conclusions

The physiological flicker-induced vasoconstriction is reduced after vitrectomy in arteries. The oxygen saturation change occurring after vitrectomy might have a role in the vascular tone modification.

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Acknowledgements

The Authors wish to thank Prof Alessandro Ambrosi, PhD of the Vita-Salute University in Milano for his support in the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute University, Via Olgettina, 60 – 20132, Milan, Italy

    Lorenzo Iuliano, Giovanni Fogliato, Giuseppe Querques, Francesco Bandello & Marco Codenotti

Authors
  1. Lorenzo Iuliano
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  2. Giovanni Fogliato
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  3. Giuseppe Querques
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  4. Francesco Bandello
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  5. Marco Codenotti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giuseppe Querques.

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Funding

No funding was received for this research.

Conflict of interest

All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Cite this article

Iuliano, L., Fogliato, G., Querques, G. et al. Retinal vascular changes after vitrectomy for idiopathic epiretinal membrane: a pilot study with dynamic vessel analysis. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 255, 1325–1332 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-017-3643-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-017-3643-8

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