TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations between cannabis use and retinal vessel diameter in young adults
AU - Hill, Melanie
AU - Wong, Tien Y.
AU - Davis, Mary
AU - Meier, Madeline
N1 - Funding Information:
This was work supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Melanie L. Hill under Grant No. (026257–001). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Funding Information:
None. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Madeline Meier designed the study, wrote the protocol, and edited the manuscript. Melanie Hill managed the literature searches, undertook the statistical analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Tien Wong provided grading of retinal images and edited the manuscript. Mary Davis edited the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript. This was work supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Melanie L. Hill under Grant No. (026257?001). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - Cannabis appears to have vascular effects that may have implications for cerebrovascular function, but no studies have directly visualized the microvasculature in living cannabis users. The current study used retinal imaging, a tool taken from ophthalmology, to visualize the small retinal microvessels in cannabis users. We compared retinal arteriolar (small arteries) and venular (small veins) diameters in 55 frequent cannabis users and 51 comparison individuals with a mean age of 19.25 years (SD = 2.43). Results indicated that mean arteriolar diameter was statistically significantly wider for cannabis users (M = 157.98, SE = 1.42) than for comparison individuals (M = 153.56, SE = 1.46; F(1,103) = 4.67, p =.033), even after controlling for a variety of covariates and after excluding from analyses cannabis users who had used cannabis in the past 24 h. There was no statistically significant difference in retinal venular diameter between cannabis users and comparison individuals. Findings suggest that frequent cannabis use is associated with wider retinal arterioles, which might represent a residual vasodilatory effect of recent cannabis use or impaired autoregulation resulting from chronic cannabis use. Retinal imaging is a non-invasive, cost-effective tool for visualizing the microvasculature in living individuals and can be combined, in future research, with neuroimaging and other measures of retinal vascular function to better understand the acute and longer-term effects of cannabis use on the microvasculature.
AB - Cannabis appears to have vascular effects that may have implications for cerebrovascular function, but no studies have directly visualized the microvasculature in living cannabis users. The current study used retinal imaging, a tool taken from ophthalmology, to visualize the small retinal microvessels in cannabis users. We compared retinal arteriolar (small arteries) and venular (small veins) diameters in 55 frequent cannabis users and 51 comparison individuals with a mean age of 19.25 years (SD = 2.43). Results indicated that mean arteriolar diameter was statistically significantly wider for cannabis users (M = 157.98, SE = 1.42) than for comparison individuals (M = 153.56, SE = 1.46; F(1,103) = 4.67, p =.033), even after controlling for a variety of covariates and after excluding from analyses cannabis users who had used cannabis in the past 24 h. There was no statistically significant difference in retinal venular diameter between cannabis users and comparison individuals. Findings suggest that frequent cannabis use is associated with wider retinal arterioles, which might represent a residual vasodilatory effect of recent cannabis use or impaired autoregulation resulting from chronic cannabis use. Retinal imaging is a non-invasive, cost-effective tool for visualizing the microvasculature in living individuals and can be combined, in future research, with neuroimaging and other measures of retinal vascular function to better understand the acute and longer-term effects of cannabis use on the microvasculature.
KW - Arterioles
KW - Marijuana
KW - Microvasculature
KW - Retinal imaging
KW - Venules
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U2 - 10.1016/j.schres.2019.02.016
DO - 10.1016/j.schres.2019.02.016
M3 - Article
C2 - 30837202
AN - SCOPUS:85062258698
SN - 0920-9964
VL - 219
SP - 62
EP - 68
JO - Schizophrenia Research
JF - Schizophrenia Research
ER -