Changes in Retinal and Choroidal Vascular Blood Flow after Oral Sildenafil: An Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Study

Purpose. to describe changes in the retina and choroidal flow by optical coherence tomography angiography (oct-a) after a single dose of oral sildenafil. method. a case-control study. patients in the study group received 50 mg of oral sildenafil. patients in the control group received a sham pill. retinal and choroidal images were obtained at baseline (before pill ingestion) and 1 hour after ingestion. central macular and choroidal thickness,choroidal and outer retina flow,and the retinal and choroidal vascular density were compared using a mann-whitney u test. results. twenty eyes were enrolled into the study group and 10 eyes in the control group. there was a significant difference in central choroidal thickness and outer retina blood flow between groups after 1 hour of sildenafil ingestion (p<0.01). there were no differences in central macular thickness,choroidal flow,and retinal vascular density among groups. conclusions. a single dose of oral sildenafil increases choroidal thickness,probably due to sildenafil-induced vasodilation. © 2017 david berrones et al.