Two Types of Retinal Capillary Path in Humans using Fluorescein Leukocyte Angiography.

Bae, Cheol Yong; Hwang, Jeong Yong; Yang, Yun Sik

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 2002;43(2):381-388.
Published online February 1, 2002.

Two Types of Retinal Capillary Path in Humans using Fluorescein Leukocyte Angiography.

Cheol Yong Bae, Jeong Yong Hwang, Yun Sik Yang

¹Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Wonkwang University, Korea. ysyang@wonkwang.ac.kr
²Hanmaum Ophthalmic Clinic, Kimje City, Korea.

인체 망막의 두 가지 모세혈관 경로에 대한 연구

배철용 ( Cheol Yong Bae ) , 황정용 ( Jeong Yong Hwang ) , 양연식 ( Yun Sik Yang )

Abstract

PURPOSE
To explain hypothesis that there are two types of human retinal capillary pathways. One is simple type and the other is complex type. The former plays a role in blood flow regulation and the latter does capillary function itself. METHODS: We measured the length, tortousity, and flow velocity of human retinal capillaries using Fluorescein Leukocyte Angiography (FLA) with a Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO) on two healthy adult male volunteers. We studied distribution and pathways of human retinal capillaries on the posterior pole. RESULTS: The lengths of capillaries were distributed with two peak incidence. One was 70 microgram and the other 240 microgram. There was no relationship between capillary length and tortousity. The correlation between capillary length and leukocyte velocity showed that the shorter capillary group has a wide range of velocity but the longer group has a narrow range of velocity. CONCLUSIONS: Two types of retinal capillary pathways exist on human retina. Compared with two types of capillaries on the cat retina described by Ben-nun et al, we found that the shorter capillary type plays a role in blood flow regulation and the longer type in capillary function itself.

Key Words: Fluorescein Leukocyte Angiography (FLA);Retinal capillary;Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO)