title: Macular microcirculation in patients with epiretinal membrane before and after surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate blood flow velocity (BFV) in the perifoveal capillaries before and after vitreous surgery for patients with epiretinal membrane (ERM).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one eyes in patients with ERM and 16 eyes in healthy subjects were involved in this study. Fluorescein angiography was performed using a scanning laser ophthalmoscope and BFV was analyzed by the tracing method. Foveal thickness (FT) was measured by optical coherence tomography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BFV was significantly slower in the ERM patients (1.04 ± 0.10 mm/s) than in the healthy subjects (1.49 ± 0.11 mm/s ) (p = 0.0010). BFV in the ERM patients 6 months after vitreous surgery (6 M) (1.21 ± 0.02 mm/s) significantly increased compared with BFV before surgery (0 M) (1.04 ± 0.10 mm/s) (p = 0.0061). BFV 1 year after vitreous surgery (1 Y) significantly increased (1.38 ± 0.02 mm/s) compared with BFV(6 M) (1.21 ± 0.02 mm/s) (p = 0.0235). FT was significantly greater in the ERM patients (351.7 ± 87.1 μm) than in the healthy subjects (158.9 ± 16.9 μm) (p = 0.0011). FT (6 M) significantly decreased (285.3 ± 36.9 μm) compared with FT before surgery (0 M) (351.7 ± 87.1 μm) (p = 0.0212). FT did not show significant differences between (6 M) and (1 Y). No significant correlation was found between BFV and FT before surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Perifoveal capillary BFV in patients with ERM was slower than that in the healthy subjects, and significantly improved after vitreous surgery as time progressed. It can be said that perifoveal capillary BFV is related to the development and improvement of ERM in the long term.
authors: Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 8-1 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan. to29ko11@oph.twmu.ac.jp
authors: Tomoko
authors: T
authors: Yagi
authors: Kumi
authors: K
authors: Sakata
authors: Hideharu
authors: H
authors: Funatsu
authors: Hidetaka
authors: H
authors: Noma
authors: Kaori
authors: K
authors: Yamamoto
authors: Sadao
authors: S
authors: Hori
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure; D019773:Epiretinal Membrane / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation; D008875:Middle Aged; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012171:Retinal Vessels / Q000502:physiology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014821:Vitrectomy