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Updated: Jul 3, 2026
Retinal Vascular Reactivity as Assessed by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
Published on: March 26, 2020
Ocular blood flow and retinal oxygen saturation measurements in central retinal artery occlusion
Ahmed M Abu El-Asrar1,2, Abeer A Alhazzani1, Abdulrahman F Albloushi1
1Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Objectives:
To provide numerical quantitative measurements of blood flow velocity in the optic nerve head (ONH) and choroid and retinal vascular oxygen saturation in patients with central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO).
Methods:
Twelve consecutive patients (12 eyes) underwent laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) and retinal oximetry measurements at presentation. The normal fellow eyes were evaluated and used as controls.
Results:
In eyes with CRAO, the ONH mean blur rate (MBR)-vessel (25 ± 15 AU), representing blood flow velocity in the large vessels originating from the central retinal artery, ONH MBR-tissue (9 ± 4 AU) and choroidal MBR (7 ± 3 AU), representing blood flow velocity in the short posterior ciliary arteries, were significantly reduced compared with fellow eyes (48 ± 10 AU; 15 ± 4 AU; 9 ± 3 AU, respectively) (p = 0.005; p = 0.009; p = 0.034, respectively). The eyes with CRAO had significantly reduced oxygen saturation in retinal arterioles (85 ± 6%) and arteriovenous oxygen saturation difference (35 ± 16%) compared with fellow eyes (105 ± 18%; 49 ± 14%, respectively) (p = 0.022; p = 0.043, respectively).
Conclusions:
LSFG blood flow and retinal oximetry measurements provide quantitative measurements of the ocular arterial circulation and retinal oxygen metabolism alterations in patients with CRAO.
