Isoxsuprine in nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy: effect on human retinal circulation assessed by fluorescein angiography--a pilot study.

The retinal vessel filling time of 10 patients with early nonproliferative diabetic retinography was measured by fluorescein angiography. Initially, the reproducibility of the authors' standardized fluorescein angiography was assessed by control angiograms on two different dates in each patient. Thereafter, prolonged use (six months) of isoxsuprine sustained release (80 mg/day) led to a nearly 50% reduction of the arterial filling time and a nearly 25% reduction of the arteriovenous filling time, whereas no changes were seen in control patients. This effect of isoxsuprine might be explained by an increase of red cell deformability and, concomitantly, a decrease of platelet adherence in the microcirculation of patients with diabetic mellitus.