Artery Research

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Volume 26, Issue 1, March 2020, Pages 27 - 33

Pressure Dependency of Retinal Arterial Pulse Wave Velocity in the Rat

Authors
Mahdieh Rezaeian1, Dana Georgevsky1, S. Mojtaba Golzan2, Stuart Graham1, Alberto Avolio3, Mark Butlin3, *
1Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
2Vision Science Group, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
3Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
*Corresponding author. Email: mark.butlin@mq.edu.au
Corresponding Author
Mark Butlin
Received 20 December 2019, Accepted 30 January 2020, Available Online 11 February 2020.
DOI
10.2991/artres.k.200201.001How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Retinal artery; small vessel; arterial stiffness; pressure dependence; pulse wave velocity
Abstract

Purpose: The retinal vasculature provides unique in vivo access to the microcirculation and presents the possibility of measuring small artery (retinal) stiffness using pulse wave velocity (PWV). This study investigates whether retinal artery PWV (rPWV) has a blood pressure (BP) dependency.

Methods: Fundus videos from eight Sprague-Dawley rats aged 12 weeks were captured (Zeiss fundus microscope with high-speed camera, 125 fps, Optronis, Germany) simultaneously with aortic BP. Retinal artery diameter waveforms at proximal and distal sites were extracted and transit time calculated from the phase delay between frequency components (4–6 Hz, typical heart rate of rats) of the waveforms. rPWV was measured across a physiological range of mean arterial pressure (MAP): baseline (90–110 mmHg); 130 mmHg to baseline following systemic phenylephrine (PE) infusion (30 μg/kg/min); 130 mmHg to baseline during PE infusion with simultaneous inferior vena cava occlusion (VO); 70 mmHg to baseline following systemic sodium nitroprusside infusion; and 70 mmHg to baseline following VO. The correlation between retinal artery rPWV and BP was quantified.

Results: There was a significant positive correlation between retinal artery rPWV and MAP as expected (0.19 mm/s/mmHg, R2 = 0.59, p < 0.001). There was a positive correlation between retinal and aortic PWV (R2 = 0.09, p = 0.03).

Conclusion: The pressure dependency of the measured rPWV indicates the measure has utility in in vivo quantification of the impact on microvessels of cardiovascular diseases. To elucidate the predictive value of screening rPWV in systemic cardiovascular abnormalities, the relation needs to be investigated in humans.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • •

    Retinal pulse wave velocity (rPWV) presents the opportunity for measuring small vessel arterial stiffness in vivo.

  • •

    rPWV measurement relies on complex image filtering to obtain diameter waveforms, bringing uncertainty as to whether the measure does reflect arterial stiffness.

  • •

    This study measures rPWV in the rat showing that it varies with blood pressure, a fundamental property of material stiffness of arteries.

  • •

    This indicates that the rPWV measure is associated with arterial stiffness.

Copyright
© 2020 Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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<Previous Article In Issue
Next Article In Issue>
Journal
Artery Research
Volume-Issue
26 - 1
Pages
27 - 33
Publication Date
2020/02/11
ISSN (Online)
1876-4401
ISSN (Print)
1872-9312
DOI
10.2991/artres.k.200201.001How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2020 Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mahdieh Rezaeian
AU  - Dana Georgevsky
AU  - S. Mojtaba Golzan
AU  - Stuart Graham
AU  - Alberto Avolio
AU  - Mark Butlin
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/02/11
TI  - Pressure Dependency of Retinal Arterial Pulse Wave Velocity in the Rat
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 27
EP  - 33
VL  - 26
IS  - 1
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.200201.001
DO  - 10.2991/artres.k.200201.001
ID  - Rezaeian2020
ER  -