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Ginkgo Biloba affects microvascular morphology: a prospective optical coherence tomography angiography pilot study

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Abstract

Purpose

To analyze the vascular morphology changes after consumption of Ginkgo biloba in healthy volunteers by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

Methods

Sixty healthy volunteers without systemic and ocular disease were included in this prospective pilot study. After receiving the informed consent of the volunteers, Ginkgo biloba extract (120 mg oral capsule) was administered to sixty volunteers for 4 weeks, once a day in the morning. The main outcome measures were the difference between before and after four-week of consumption in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and subfoveal choroidal thickness (sfCT) with optical coherence tomography; whole, foveal, parafoveal and perifoveal regions’ superior and deep macular vascular plexus vessel density, foveal avascular zone area (FAZ), FAZ perimeter (PERIM), vessel density in a 300 µm wide region around FAZ (FD-300), choroidal and outer retinal flow area, radial peripapillary capillary (RPC) vascular density of whole, inside the disc, peripapillary and four quadrants with OCTA.

Results

The study group consisted of sixty eyes of 32 women and 28 men with a mean age of 20.57 ± 1.16 years. In post-consumption measurements, peripapillary and superior, inferior, temporal quadrant RPC vascular density (%) was statistically significantly higher than pre-consumption measurements (p 0.020, p 0.021, p 0.008 and p 0.014, respectively). No significant difference was observed for BCVA, sfCT, other macular or RPC vascular density and flow area OCTA parameters between measurements.

Conclusion

Four-week consumption of Ginkgo biloba leads to vascular morphological changes in RPC. Further clinical studies are needed to demonstrate its use and effects/benefits in glaucoma, optic neuropathy and other diseases affecting the optic nerve.

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Data availability

Dataset not available due to ethical restrictions: Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their personal data to be shared publicly, so dataset is not available.

Abbreviations

GBE:

Ginkgo biloba extract

FAZ:

Foveal avascular zone area

OCTA:

Optical coherence tomography angiography

IOP:

Intraocular pressure

OPP:

Ocular perfusion pressure

AL:

Axial length

BCVA:

Best-corrected visual acuity

RNFL:

Retinal nerve fiber layer

sfCT:

Subfoveal choroidal thickness

SD-OCT:

Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

PERIM:

Foveal avascular zone area perimeter

FD-300:

Vessel density in a 300 µm wide region around the foveal avascular zone

RPC:

Radial peripapillary capillary

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Funding

No financial or funding support was received for this research. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Bafra State Hospital, Samsun, Turkey

    Mehmet Cem Sabaner

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey

    Mustafa Dogan

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey

    Salih Samed Altin, Cemil Balaman, Ceyda Yilmaz, Aysegul Omur, Irem Zeybek & Muserref Palaz

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  1. Mehmet Cem Sabaner
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All authors attest that they meet the current ICMJE criteria for authorship. All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data, took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, gave final approval of the version to be published and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

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Institutional review board approval was obtained from the local ethics committee (2011-KAEK-2) (Approval Code: 2020/3-120, including publishing and participating).

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Sabaner, M.C., Dogan, M., Altin, S.S. et al. Ginkgo Biloba affects microvascular morphology: a prospective optical coherence tomography angiography pilot study. Int Ophthalmol 41, 1053–1061 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-020-01663-3

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