Intravitreal bevacizumab treatment reduces ocular blood flow in retinopathy of prematurity: a four-case report.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between ocular blood flow, expressed as mean blur rate (MBR) by laser speckle flowgraphy, and intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) therapy in neonates with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Methods: This was a case series study of 4 neonates with ROP under sedation before and after IVB and evaluated 8 eyes, in which the circulation could be measured three times consecutively. We performed optic nerve head blood flow measurement and fluorescein angiography (FA) before and 1 week after treatment.

Decreased ocular blood flow after photocoagulation therapy in neonatal retinopathy of prematurity.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationships between optic nerve head blood flow, expressed as mean blur rate (MBR) measured by laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG), and photocoagulation therapy in neonates with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Study Design: Case series study.

Methods: We studied 5 ROP neonates either during sleep or under sedation both before and after photocoagulation, and evaluated 8 eyes in which the circulation could be measured three times consecutively.

Ocular blood flow values measured by laser speckle flowgraphy correlate with the postmenstrual age of normal neonates.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationships between optic nerve head (ONH) blood flow by laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG), and postmenstrual age and body weight in normal neonates.

Methods: During their normal sleep, we studied 24 infants (postmenstrual age, 248-295 days) whose ocular blood flow could be measured three consecutive times. While the subjects slept in the supine position, three mean blur rate (MBR) values of the ONH were obtained: the MBR-A (mean of all values), MBR-V (vessel mean) and MBR-T (tissue mean) in the ONH.

Reproducibility of Neonate Ocular Circulation Measurements Using Laser Speckle Flowgraphy.

Measuring the ocular blood flow in neonates may clarify the relationships between eye diseases and ocular circulation abnormalities. However, no method for noninvasively measuring ocular circulation in neonates is established. We used laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) modified for neonates to measure their ocular circulation and investigated whether this method is reproducible.

Comparison of changes in cerebral and systemic perfusion between appropriate- and small-for-gestational-age infants during the first three days after birth.

Purpose: The aims of the current study were to compare changes in cerebral and systemic perfusion in appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants immediately after birth.

Methods: Cerebral blood volume (CBV), cerebral Hb oxygen saturation (cSO2) and cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction (cFTOE) among 57 AGA infants and 30 SGA infants were monitored using a newly developed time-resolved spectroscopy system during the first 3days of life. The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular cardiac output (LVCO) and E/e' values were determined by three-dimensional echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging performed simultaneously.

Umbilical cord milking stabilizes cerebral oxygenation and perfusion in infants born before 29 weeks of gestation.

Objective: To investigate the effects of umbilical cord milking at birth on cerebral perfusion and systemic perfusion in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants.

Study Design: Cerebral tissue oxygenation index and cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction were monitored in 50 stable VLBW infants (gestational age <29 weeks, birth weight <1250 g), with 26 allocated to the milked group and 24 to the control group. We used near-infrared spectroscopy 3-6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 72 hours after birth.

Changes in cerebral perfusion in extremely LBW infants during the first 72 h after birth.

Cerebral perfusion and its relation with systemic circulation in extremely LBW (ELBW) infants in the early neonatal period are not well understood. The cerebral tissue oxygenation index (TOI) and cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction (FTOE) were monitored in stable 16 ELBW infants (GA <29 wk) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) at 3-6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 72 h after birth. The left ventricular end-systolic wall stress (ESWS), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular cardiac output (LVCO), and superior vena cava (SVC) flow were also measured simultaneously using echocardiography.