РУАЭСТ (RUAEST)
MICROSTRUCTURE OF THE INNER WALL OF RETINAL ARTERIES CHANGES WITH AGE IN ANAMNESTICALY HEALTHY PERSONS
Arteriosclerosis involves the whole human vascular system with a somewhat patchy appearance. Although typical arteriosclerotic lesions are confined to major arteries, vessels of microcirculation are affected as well. Retinal vessels are part of the microvascular bed. They can be assessed in non invasive ways by rather simple optical methods and are similar to cerebral vessels in their structure and function. Retinal vessels are not straight tubes with a constant lumen, but rather possess narrower and wider diameters in different segments. The aim of the present work was to study functional and morphological age-related alterations in retinal vasculature as well as to determine quantitative parameters which could characterize these changes. Changes in longitudinal vessel section of retinal arterial segments were examined clinically by Retinal Vessel Analyzer (IMEDOS, Germany) in 35 anamnesticaly healthy persons at the age of 21—27 years, 40— 60 years and 60—85. A monochromatic flicker of 12.5 Hz was applied for 60 s. Arterial diameters were measured in vessel segments of 1 mm in length in order to obtain the longitudinal arterial profiles. Differences in amplitude and frequency of arterial widths change were characterized by the parameter ‘spectral edge frequency’ (SEF). The rate of microirregularity of retinal arterial inner walls along a vessel increased significantly in anamnesticaly healthy volunteers with increasing age.