Don't drink too much, choroid will tell the truth! A new study exploring the impact of acute, heavy alcohol consumption on the choroidal and retinal microvasculature was published in "Microvascular Research", elucidating notable choroidal arteriolovenular constriction, represented by reduced CV and CVV, and dilation of choroidal capillaries, represented by increased CCD, after acute alcohol consumption. 17 healthy volunteers aged 20 to 30 years consumed three different liquids (spirits, wine and water) in random sequence on three separate days.

The fundus microvasculature was examined by a 400kHz full-range SS-OCTA BMizar before drinking and 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 hrs after liquid consumption. TowardPi inbuilt automatic 3D choroidal vessel parameters including choroidal volume (CV), choroidal vessel volume (CVV), choroidal capillaries density (CCD,) and retinal vessel density (RVD) were evaluated within 24mm x 20mm OCTA (HD mode, single shot within 15 seconds).

Alcohol consumption resulted in a significant decrease in CV and CVV but an increase in CCD within the spirits and wine groups. Both alcohols showed similar effects. These changes were most pronounced at the 1-hour time point and gradually recovered thereafter. The multivariate analysis was used in this study after correcting for blood pressure and heart rate, suggesting that these changes in choroidal vasculature may not related to blood pressure but caused by alcohol.

All these finding provided us better understanding of how alcohol affects ocular microvasculature and further implications for cardiocerebrovascular health.

Authored by Dr. Xuenan Zhuang etc, team of Prof. Feng Wen and Prof. Xiongze Zhang, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University.

Link of original text: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0026286223001553