ORBITAL COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING IN NONISCHEMIC OPTIC ATROPHY

Purpose: The authors studied the orbital hemodynamics of patients with nonvascular and nonglaucomatous optic neuropathy. Methods: The author s performed orbital color Doppler imaging on 19 eyes of 10 patients wi th compressive, inflammatory, toxic, or hereditary optic neuropathy, T he peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV), and Pou rcelot's resistivity (PR) index of the central retinal, temporal short posterior ciliary, nasal short posterior ciliary, and ophthalmic arte ries were assessed. Statistical comparison of these values was perform ed against ten normal controls of similar age and gender using the two -sample Student's t test. Results: No statistical significance was fou nd in the PSV, EDV, and PR of the central retinal, temporal short post erior ciliary, nasal short posterior ciliary, and ophthalmic arteries between the optic atrophy and control groups and analysis of 95% confi dence intervals for these variables suggested that the true difference s between these groups were small. Conclusions: This study suggests th at optic atrophy in and of itself does not appear to alter orbital hem odynamics to the extent previously demonstrated for glaucoma patients.