Microvascular blood flow of the optic nerve head and peripapillary retina in unilateral exfoliation syndrome

. Purpose: To measure microvascular blood flow in patients with unilateral exfoliation syndrome (XFS) without glaucoma or ocular hypertension and to compare the values in the eyes with clinically detected exfoliation, their nonexfoliative fellow eyes of the same patients and control eyes. Methods: Twenty‐two patients with clinically detected unilateral XFS and 30 age‐matched healthy subjects were included in this study. Group 1 consisted of 22 eyes with clinical XFS, and the nonexfoliative fellow eyes of the same patients formed Group 2. The control group (Group 3) comprised the randomly selected eyes of 30 age‐matched healthy subjects. Ocular blood flow values (volume, flow and velocity) were recorded from the optic nerve head (ONH) and peripapillary retina (PPR) using the Heidelberg retinal flowmeter (HRF). The differences between the three groups were compared statistically. Results: The mean values of blood flow obtained from the ONH and PPR in eyes with clinically detected exfoliation (Group 1) and their nonexfoliative fellow eyes (Group 2) were both significantly lower than the values for the control eyes (Group 3). The differences in ocular blood flow between the eyes with exfoliation and the nonexfoliative fellow eyes were not statistically significant [one‐way analysis of variance (anova), Dunnett's T3 test, p ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the eyes with clinically detected unilateral XFS were associated with reduced blood flow values in both the ONH and the PPR. The nonexfoliative fellow eyes also have lower blood flow values than the control eyes.