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OCT angiography shows immediate alteration caused by smoking on macular perfusion
Smoking causes a significant, acute decrease in macular blood flow, likely due to nicotine and other chemicals, as shown in an OCT angiography study.
OCTA allows dynamic quantitation of blood flow in the retinal and choroidal vascular structures and was used in this study to evaluate the alterations produced by cigarette smoking in retinal blood flow.
Forty healthy chronic smokers and 40 nonsmokers matched for age and sex were included. The mean smoking package year of smokers was 13.3 years ± 9 years, ranging between 1 year and 40 years. All subject were asked to abstain from smoking and/or drinks and medicines containing nicotine or caffeine for 8 hours before undergoing baseline OCTA scans. Smokers were then asked to smoke one standard cigarette. OCT scans were repeated for everyone at 5 minutes, 30 minutes and 60 minutes from baseline.
A significant reduction in the flow index of the choriocapillaris was reported at all times after cigarette smoking, while no change was seen in controls. No significant difference was found by linear regression analysis between age and smoking package year with flow index of the choriocapillaris, vessel density or foveal avascular zone (FAZ).
“Although smoking caused a significant decrease on macular blood flow at the acute stage, we did not find a significant difference in macular blood flow, vessel density or FAZ measurements between the study and control groups in a chronic period,” the authors wrote. “These results confirmed that smoking causes hypoxia at macula at the acute stage.” – by Michela Cimberle
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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Ayhan Z et al. Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2017;doi:10.3928/23258160-20170802-03.