Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 5, 2025
Quantification of Vascular Parameters in Whole Mount Retinas of Mice with Non-Proliferative and Proliferative Retinopathies
Published on: March 12, 2022
Retinal arteriolar parameters as a surrogate marker of intracranial vascular pathology
Ahmed Abdelhak1, Isaac Solomon2, Shivany Condor Montes1
1Weill Institute for Neurosciences Department of Neurology University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) San Francisco California USA.
Introduction:
Development of novel diagnostic tools is a top research priority in vascular dementia. A major obstacle is the lack of a simple, non-invasive method to visualize cerebral arteriolar walls in vivo. Retinal arterioles offer a window into the cerebral circulation.
Methods:
Intensity-based retinal arteriolar visualization in optical coherence tomography (I-bRAVO) was applied to evaluate mean wall thickness (MWT) and wall-to-lumen ratio (WLR) in 250 subjects with sporadic and genetic cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), non-vascular neurodegenerative diseases (NVND), and healthy controls (HC) in association with imaging and cognitive markers.
Results:
MWT and WLR were higher in CSVD, associated with severity of vascular white matter lesions, and correlated with magnetic resonance imaging-based intracranial arteriolosclerosis score. WLR correlated with gray and white matter volume and differentiated asymptomatic sporadic CSVD from HC (area under the curve = 0.82).
Discussion:
I-bRAVO is a rapid, non-invasive tool. MWT and WLR were associated with imaging markers of CSVD and could contribute to early identification of sporadic CSVD.
