Modifications in blood flow observed by conjunctival angioscopy after 10 days of treatment by pentoxifylline (using 19 cases)

Abstract

Patients suffering from peripheral obliterative arterial disease present very often abnormalities from their blood flow, especially from their erythrocyte velocity. A population of nineteen Fontaine’s II stage patients who did not suffer from diabetes or hypertensive pressure, received 800 mg/day of pentoxifylline for 10 days. Each patient, being his own reference, underwent a parameter study of the lipidic dynamic of his red blood cell membranes (erythrocyte ghosts) and, similarly, a conjunctival angioscopic examination, at the beginning and the end of treatment. This study shows that there is an important interrelationship between the modifications of the blood flow, observed by conjunctival angioscopy, and the variations in microviscosity, obtained by fluorescence polarization, as well as those in activation energy flux, under the action of the pentoxifylline.