Imparied retrobulbar blood flow and increased carotid IMT in patients with Crohn’s disease

• Published in: International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging 2016-11, Vol.32 (11), p.1617-1623
• Main Authors: Caliskan, Zuhal, Keles, Nursen, Kahraman, Resul, Özdil, Kamil, Karagoz, Vildan, Aksu, Feyza, Aciksari, Gonul, Yilmaz, Yusuf, Kul, Seref, Caliskan, Mustafa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Blood Flow Velocity; Cardiac Imaging; Cardiology; Carotid Arteries - diagnostic imaging; Carotid Artery Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Carotid Artery Diseases - etiology; Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; Case-Control Studies; Crohn Disease - complications; Crohn Disease - diagnosis; Echocardiography, Doppler, Pulsed; Eye - blood supply; Eye Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Eye Diseases - etiology; Eye Diseases - physiopathology; Female; Humans; Imaging; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Microcirculation; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Predictive Value of Tests; Radiology; Regional Blood Flow; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Factors; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color
• ISSN: 1569-5794; 1573-0743; 1875-8312
• DOI: 10.1007/s10554-016-0956-3

Crohn’s Disease [CD] is one of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases that are chronic relapsing inflammatory diseases. Despite the major affected organ is intestine in CD, extra intestinal organs and tissues including cardiovascular system are also affected. Several studies have demonstrated that CD patients may have a higher risk of advancing atherosclerosis. The microvascular endothelial dysfunction plays an essential role for developing coronary atherosclerosis. Microvascular structural abnormalities in the retinal circulation may predict macrovascular events such as stroke and coronary heart disease. In order to assess the the microvascular circulation of the retina; retrobulbar blood flow velocities and resisitive indices [RI] of retrobulbar arteries are measured. The carotid intima media thickness [CIMT] correlates strongly with CV risk in the future. We aimed to investigate whether calculation of RI of retrobulbar arteries can be used as novel, easy and reproducible method to define atherosclerotic risk in CD patients along with CIMT. Thirty CD patients with remission period and thirty healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. Measurement of carotid intima-media thickness and retrobulbar blood flow velocities were obtained with ultrasound scanner and colour Doppler ultrasonography. The RI of the OA [0.77 ± 0.06 vs. 0.65 ± 0.06, p