Central serous chorioretinopathy shows reduced retinal flow circulation in retinal function imaging (RFI).

Purpose: To assess retinal blood flow in patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSR).

Methods: The hospital-based observational comparative study included a study group with 12 patients (age: 45 ± 13 years) with an acute onset of CSR and a control group of 12 subjects matched for age and gender with the study group. The diagnosis was substantiated by fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography. All study participants underwent measurement of retinal blood perfusion using the retinal function imager (RFI).

Results: The retinal blood flow velocity in the retinal veins was significantly lower in the study group than in the control group (2.76 ± 0.53 mm/s versus 3.33 ± 0.76 mm/s; p = 0.03).The difference between the study group and control group was more marked for the larger retinal veins (2.87 ± 0.51 mm/s versus 3.47 ± 0.48 mm/s; p = 0.001) than for the smaller veins (2.69 ± 0.53 mm/s versus 3.42 ± 1.05 mm/s; p = 0.04). Both groups did not differ significantly in the data of the retinal arterial flow velocities.

Conclusions: The data suggest an abnormal retinal venous blood flow regulation in patients with active CSR.