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<0.001). The mean FMD value was 9.71±2.19% in the control group and 5.13±2.72% in the BRVO group (p=0.002). The mean SBP value was 117.17±7.01 in the control group and 140.17±10.38 in the BRVO group (p=0.001). The median DBP value was 75.5 (61 / 84) in the control group and 89.5 (68 / 109) in the BRVO group (p<0.001). Also FMD and SBP were found as an independent risk factor for BRVO (p=0.040 and p=0.019). Conclusion: Impaired brachial artery NMD and FMD levels may imply that not only endothelial dysfunction also smooth muscle cell dysfunction may play a role in the occurrence of BRVO. Also these parameters can be used for further analyses of these patients.

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