Impact of combined hormonal contraceptives on vessels functionality.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the dynamic and static retinal vascular functionality in young females using combined hormonal contraceptive (CHC).

METHODS

Thirty-eight consecutive young female subjects were enrolled in this study between January 2015 and December 2015. Subjects were divided in two groups: CHC group, defined as CHC use for ≥6 months, and control group, defined as no current and prior CHC use. Participants underwent a dynamic and static retinal vessel analysis using the Dynamic Vessel Analyzer (DVA, Imedos, Jena, Germany).

RESULTS

Seventeen subjects continuously took CHC for 54.6 ± 29.3 months, while 21 subjects belonged to control group. No difference was found between the CHC and control groups for age (p = 0.1), smoking status (p = 0.6), and systolic (p = 0.3) and diastolic (p = 0.1) blood pressure. With regard to dynamic analysis, women taking CHC exhibited a marked significant vasoconstriction following flicker stimulation in comparison with control group (-2.43 ± 2.5 vs 0.63 ± 2.1, respectively; p = 0.0002). No significant difference was observed between groups for mean arterial (p = 0.2) and venous dilatations (p = 0.3), arteriovenous ratio (p = 0.09), central retinal artery equivalent (p = 0.4), and central retinal venous equivalent (p = 0.5).

CONCLUSIONS

CHC may affect vessel reactivity to flicker light by increasing arteries constriction. This may reflect systemic changes in vascular functionality in subjects using CHC. Moreover, CHC should be considered as a confounding bias in studies involving DVA.