Ocular and orbital vascular blood flow in patients with endocrine ophthalmopathy

: Twenty patients with endocrine ophthalmopathy (EOP) (40 eyes) were examined, of them 11, 14, and 15 eyes were in a state of compensation, subcompensation, and decompensation, respectively. Color Doppler imaging was made in all the patients in order to study blood flow in the ophthalmic artery, retinal central artery, retinal central vein, posterior short ciliary arteries, posterior long ciliary arteries, and superior ophthalmic vein. There was a significant reduction in end diastolic blood flow velocity and a pronounced increase in the orbital arteries, which is typical of the ocular ischemic syndrome. The patients in a stage of EOP decompensation were found to have lowest values of the maximum systolic blood flow velocity in the retinal central vein and superior ophthalmic vein. The higher values of the maximum blood flow velocity in the orbital arteries in patients with decompensated EOP resulted from orbital pathological processes that may be largely determined by congestive processes rather than orbital inflammation.