Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF SMOOTH MUSCLE CELL AND ENDOTHELIAL FUNCTIONS IN BRANCH RETINAL VEIN OCCLUSION

Sinan Bilgin* MD, Ozcan Kayikcioglu, MD, Prof., Tansu Erakgun MD, Prof., and
Meral Kayikcioglu MD, Prof.

Abstract

Objective: One of the common retinal vascular disorder is branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) that causes visual impairment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate vascular smooth muscle cell and endothelial functions in BRVO patients. Materials and Methods: Thirty 30 BRVO patients and 30 healthy subjects were included in this study. Nitrate-mediated dilatation (NMD) which represent smooth muscle relaxation and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) which represent the endothelium-dependent relaxation of the brachial artery were measured by ultrasonography. Biochemical and laboratory tests including total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, LDLcholesterol, apolipoprotein(Apo)-A1, Apo-B and mean systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were also considered. Results: The median NMD value was 15.55 (12.3 /25) % in the control group and 12.5 (8.3 / 18.7) in the BRVO group (p

Keywords: Branch retinal vein occlusion, flow-mediated dilation, nitrate-mediated dilatation, endothelial dysfunction, smooth muscle cell dysfunction.