Effect of Breathing a Mixture of 92% Oxygen (O2) + 8% Carbon Dioxide (CO2) on Flicker Induced Blood Flow Changes in Ocular Perfusion

Effect of Breathing a Mixture of 92% O2 + 8% CO2 on Flicker Induced Blood Flow Changes in Ocular Perfusion

It has been shown that diffuse luminance flicker increases retinal and optic nerve head blood flow. This indicates that a neuro-vascular coupling between neural activity and blood flow exists in the retina as described previously for the brain. Although a lot of mediators such as NO, pO2, pCO2, H+ and K+ have been proposed, the mechanism of this coupling is still a matter of controversy. However, it has been shown in an animal experiment, that an increase in blood flow, evoked by diffuse luminance flicker stimulation is paralleled by decrease in pO2 in the tissue. In a recently performed study we could show that breathing of 100% O2 did not influence flicker induced changes in the retina and optic nerve head. However, breathing of 100% oxygen also leads to a pronounced vasoconstriction of the retinal vessels and in turn to a increased tension of the vessel wall. Recent evidence indicates that a combination of 92% O2 and 8% CO2 can, at least partially, counteract the vasoconstrictory effect of O2 and increases tissue pO2. Thus, in this study the investigators set out to investigate the flicker light induced increase in blood flow under a mixture of O2/CO2 .

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Flicker-induced Vasodilatation
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Oxygen + Carbondioxide; Other: full field flickering light at 12.5 Hz

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 24
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Austria
  • Vienna, Austria, 1090
    • Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 35 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Men and Women aged between 18 and 35 years, nonsmokers
• Body mass index between 15th and 85th percentile
• Normal findings in the medical history and physical examination unless the investigator considers an abnormality to be clinically irrelevant
• Normal laboratory values unless the investigator considers an abnormality to be clinically irrelevant
• Normal ophthalmic findings, ametropy < 3 Dpt.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Regular use of medication, abuse of alcoholic beverages, participation in a clinical trial in the 3 weeks preceding the study
• Treatment in the previous 3 weeks with any drug
• Symptoms of a clinically relevant illness in the 3 weeks before the first study day
• Blood donation during the previous 3 weeks

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: CROSSOVER
• Masking: DOUBLE

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Optic nerve head blood flow	1 hour
Retinal vessel diameters	1 hour

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
blood pressure	1 hour
pulse rate	1 hour

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Medical University of Vienna

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2008
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): May 1, 2009
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): December 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 1, 2008
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 17, 2008
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): July 21, 2008

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE): November 14, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 13, 2014
• Last Verified: November 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Regional Blood Flow; Ocular Physiology; Retinal vessel diameter; Flicker-induced vasodilatation; Optic nerve head blood flow
• Other Study ID Numbers: OPHT-030606