Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Using Retinal Imaging to Study Dementia
Published on: November 6, 2017
Retinal microvascular density modifications during the water drinking test
Gustavo Rosa Gameiro1, Giovana Rosa Gameiro2,3, Michel Eid Farah1
1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of Sao Paulo - EPM/UNIFESP, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Purpose:
The water drinking test (WDT) is a well-known stress test that increases intraocular pressure (IOP) momentarily and can indicate risk of glaucoma progression. This study focuses on correlating changes in the retinal microvascular plexus with the WDT in young healthy subjects.
Methods:
A total of 20 eyes of 20 healthy young subjects (mean age 24.37 ± 2.17 years) were included in this study. In our protocol, WDT consisted of drinking 1 L of water within 5 min. Outcome measures in this prospective observational study were mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), IOP, and retinal vessel density of both superficial and deep macular retina using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), which were assessed before water ingestion and four times after at 15-min intervals. OCTA images were later quantified by fractal analysis (box counting [Dbox]). One-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the effects of WDT on each of the parameters.
Results:
The WDT resulted in significant peak changes of the following parameters compared to baseline: IOP: 15.63 ± 3.37 versus 18.38 ± 4.53 mmHg at 30 min, p < 0.001; HR: 75.74 ± 12.23 versus 64.95 ± 11.37 bpm at 15 min, p < 0.001; deep retinal vessel density 1.758 ± 0.14 versus 1.749 ± 0.16 at 15 min, p = 0.040.
Conclusions:
Besides IOP elevation and systemic effects in HR, WDT is associated with temporary modifications of the deep vascular plexus in young healthy subjects.
