Marginal corneal vascular arcades.

PURPOSE: To determine the metrics of the marginal corneal vascular arcades (MCA).

METHODS

The MCA and filling pattern was investigated using indocyanine green dye angiography (ICGA) in the fellow eye of patients with treated unilateral keratitis. Images were acquired using a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Five contiguous squares (100 pixels) were aligned beyond the inner row of vessels extending approximately 700 μm into the limbal region and spanning an arc length of approximately 4 mm of the peripheral cornea. Geometrical properties of the MCA were determined using programs written in a numerical computing environment.

RESULTS

A total of 17 patients (24-88 years) were included. Filling of the inferior corneal quadrant occurred first, followed by superior, nasal, and temporal quadrants. Mean area of a vascular loop of the MCA was 11.87 × 10⁻³ mm² (SD: 10.44 × 10⁻³ mm²) skewed (2.20) toward smaller sizes. Mean circumference of a vascular loop was 422.5 μm (SD: 218.7 μm) with major and minor axes of 158.9 μm and 90.8 μm. There were five (SD: 1.8) branches per loop with a segment length of 89.5 um (SD 163.8 μm). Vessels were tortuous (mean 0.19, SD: 0.16) with a fractal number of 1.51 (0.12). There were significant differences between subjects in vessel loop area (P = 0.003) and number of branches (P = 0.002). Speed of flow was circumferential along the innermost row and measured at 0.22 mm/s in one subject.

CONCLUSIONS

The MCA comprise a network of branched interlinked elliptical loops supporting circumferential blood flow in the corneal periphery. There was no definable change in vascular pattern extending into the limbal region.