Dynamics of external ocular blood flow studied by scanning angiographic microscopy.

The scanning angiographic microscope (SAM) provides a solution to the considerable technical difficulties associated with conventional episcleral fluorescein angiography. Standardised anterior segment fluorescein videoangiograms were performed using the SAM in each episcleral quadrant of the right eye in 6 normal subjects; frame-by-frame analysis proved important. Centripetal flow was seen in all 37 scleral perforating arteries investigated. Other features were the marked individual variability, much larger vertical anterior ciliary arteries, the high frequency of arteriovenous anastomoses, the complex flow patterns, the absence of a 'watershed' zone between anterior ciliary and posterior episcleral circulations, a characteristic and discontinuous distribution of 'leaky' episcleral veins, and the primacy of venous drainage into the plexus of muscular veins. Reports of retrograde blood flow in the anterior ciliary arteries in most fluorescein angiographic studies are probably incorrect, the result of unappreciated methodological problems. The SAM is an important advance on previous anterior segment fluorescein angiography techniques.