Impaired Choroidal Blood Flow in Adolescents with Essential Arterial Hypertension

Arterial hypertension is a problem not only for adults, but also for children, but there are very few data on changes in the organ of vision under the influence of an elevated level of blood pressure in children.

The aim of the work is to identify disturbances of the choroidal blood flow in children and adolescents with essential arterial hypertension.

Methods. Fifty patients with essential arterial hypertension were examined. The age of patients ranged from 10 to 17 years, the duration of the disease ranged from 2 months to 8 years. All patients underwent color Doppler mapping of the orbital vessels, registration of the oscillatory potentials of the ERG.

Results. It was revealed that increased arterial pressure causes retinal and choroidal ischemia, which is accompanied primarily by impaired blood flow in the orbital vessels and is reflected in a decrease in the amplitude and deformation of the peaks of the ERG oscillatory potentials.

Conclusion. Hypertension causes and supports retinal and choroidal ischemia, which is accompanied primarily by impaired blood flow in the orbital vessels, functional depression of photoreceptors, ganglion cells and neuroglia of the retina, aggravating the identified changes as the experience of essential hypertension increases. A marker of chorioretinal ischemia is amplitude depression, a change in the shape of the teeth of the oscillatory potentials of the ERG, which indicates a decrease in the functional activity of the retinal ganglion complex.

That is, these changes can be considered as a predictor of hypertensive angioretinopathy in children and adolescents with essential arterial hypertension.

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