Retinal Neuro-vascular Coupling in Patients With Non-arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy

Ischemic optic neuropathy is among the most common causes of serious impaired vision in the middle-aged and elderly population in the western world. The current study focuses on a subgroup of ischemic optic neuropathy, the so-called non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). Although the exact pathogenesis of NAION has not been fully clarified it is known that patients with cardio-vascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia have also an increased risk to develop NAION. Along this line of thought it has been shown that patients with a history of NAION in one eye have an increased risk to develop NAION also on the contralateral eye. However, clinical studies investigating ocular perfusion abnormalities in patients with NAION are sparse and even contradicting. Thus, the current study seeks to measure ocular blood flow parameters in patients with a history of NAION and compare it to healthy age-matched subjects.