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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography of Retinal Circulation
Published on: September 18, 2012
Automated spectroscopic retinal oximetry with visible-light optical coherence tomography
Shaohua Pi1, Acner Camino1, William Cepurna1
1Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
Abstract:
Accurate, quantitative assessment of retinal blood oxygen saturation (sO ) may provide a useful early indicator of pathophysiology in several ocular diseases. Here, with visible-light optical coherence tomography (OCT), we demonstrate an automated spectroscopic retinal oximetry algorithm to measure the sO within the retinal arteries (A-sO ) and veins (V-sO ) in rats by automatically detecting the vascular posterior boundary on cross-sectional structural OCT. The algorithm was validated in vitro with flow phantoms and in vivo in rats by comparing the sO results, respectively, to those obtained using a blood gas analyzer and pulse oximetry. We also investigated the response of oxygen extraction (A-V sO ), including inter-session reproducibility, at different inhaled oxygen concentrations.
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