Retinal pulse wave velocity measurement using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Cardiovascular Research
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• The human eye offers a noninvasive window for measuring small artery pulse wave velocity (PWV).
• Retinal PWV assessment is crucial for detecting early vascular diseases by evaluating small artery stiffness.
• Increasing attention is given to retinal PWV measurement for vascular health monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel jump-scanning method for noninvasive retinal PWV measurement.
• To utilize spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for enhanced PWV assessment.
• To validate the method's efficacy in detecting arterial stiffness related to blood pressure.

Main Methods:

• Developed a jump-scanning method utilizing phase-resolved Doppler OCT.
• Obtained pulse shapes by analyzing Doppler shifts within OCT data.
• Calculated PWV by measuring pulse transit time between two distinct OCT scanning sites.

Main Results:

• Measured retinal arterial PWV in healthy subjects ranged from 20-30 mm/s, aligning with prior research.
• Observed a PWV of 50 mm/s in a prehypertensive subject, confirming the link between retinal PWV and blood pressure.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of noninvasive PWV measurement in human retinal arteries.

Conclusions:

• The proposed jump-scanning SD-OCT method enables noninvasive retinal PWV measurement.
• This technique can assess small artery stiffness and detect early signs of vascular disease.
• The method holds potential for advancing vascular disease research and clinical diagnosis.