Evaluation of ocular blood flow by Doppler ultrasound in patients with essential blepharospasm

Benign essential blepharospasm (EB) is a focal facial dyskinesia that occurs with the involuntary contraction of muscles around the eyes. In the literature, studies on blepharospasm focus on elucidating the pathophysiology of this condition in the brain. To the best of our knowledge, there is no research evaluating the orbital imaging findings of patients with EB. Therefore, the current study aimed to determine whether there was any change in the blood supply of muscles around the eye or ocular blood flow in patients with blepharospasm and investigate flow changes that may be caused by spasm.

Thirty patients with EB and 30 controls were included in the study. Orbital Doppler ultrasound was performed in all cases to measure ophthalmic and temporal artery peak systolic velocity and end diastolic velocity and calculate resistive index values. Superior ophthalmic vein blood flow velocity (SOVBFV) was also measured.

There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of age and gender distribution (P = 0.345 and 0.870, respectively). SOVBFV was found to be significantly higher in the EB group (P = 0.001). No significant difference was observed in the remaining investigated parameters.

In conclusion, our study suggested that ocular spasm in patients with EB had no effect on blood flow other than SOVBFV. When SOVBFV was compared between the EB and control groups, it was found to be increased in the EB group. We consider that this statistical difference may be clinically and pathophysiologically significant.