Quantitative assessment of the effect of acute anaerobic exercise on macular perfusion via swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography in young football players

Aim: To evaluate the effect of acute anaerobic exercise on macular perfusion measured by swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) in young football players. Materials and methods: Football players with ages between 18 and 20 years were included into the study. After a detailed ophthalmological examination, physiological parameters including height (cm), body weight (kg), body fat percentage (%), systemic blood pressure (BP) (mmHg), hematocrit values (%), oxygen saturation pO2 (%) and heart rate (bpm) were recorded. Intraocular pressure (IOP) (mmHg) and SS-OCTA using DRI OCT Triton (Topcon, Tokyo, Japan) were measured immediately before and after Wingate test. Results: Out of 20, 16 participants completed the study. All participants were males with a mean age of 18.12 ±.34 years. Systolic BP, hematocrit and heart rate increased, while pO2 and IOP decreased remarkably after Wingate test (p <.01). After anaerobic exercise, there was an increase in mean FAZ area in superficial capillary plexus (FAZs) which was not significant (p =.13), while decrease in FAZ area in deep capillary plexus (FAZd) (mm2) was remarkable (p =.04). No changes were observed in mean vessel density (VD) (%) in superficial capillary plexus (VDs), deep capillary plexus (VDd), choriocapillaris (VDcc), central macular thickness (CMT) (μm) and subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) (μm) after Wingate test (p >.05). FAZd and some of the VD parameters showed a significant correlation with BP (p <.05). Conclusion: Acute anaerobic exercise seems not to alter either mean VD in retina and choroid or CMT and SFCT. Among OCTA parameters, only FAZd decreased remarkably.