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Retinal Microvasculature (retinal + microvasculature)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Retinal vascular image analysis as a potential screening tool for cerebrovascular disease: a rationale based on homology between cerebral and retinal microvasculatures

JOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 4 2005
Niall Patton
Abstract The retinal and cerebral microvasculatures share many morphological and physiological properties. Assessment of the cerebral microvasculature requires highly specialized and expensive techniques. The potential for using non-invasive clinical assessment of the retinal microvasculature as a marker of the state of the cerebrovasculature offers clear advantages, owing to the ease with which the retinal vasculature can be directly visualized in vivo and photographed due to its essential two-dimensional nature. The use of retinal digital image analysis is becoming increasingly common, and offers new techniques to analyse different aspects of retinal vascular topography, including retinal vascular widths, geometrical attributes at vessel bifurcations and vessel tracking. Being predominantly automated and objective, these techniques offer an exciting opportunity to study the potential to identify retinal microvascular abnormalities as markers of cerebrovascular pathology. In this review, we describe the anatomical and physiological homology between the retinal and cerebral microvasculatures. We review the evidence that retinal microvascular changes occur in cerebrovascular disease and review current retinal image analysis tools that may allow us to use different aspects of the retinal microvasculature as potential markers for the state of the cerebral microvasculature. [source]

Arteriolar Involvement in the Microvascular Lesions of Diabetic Retinopathy: Implications for Pathogenesis

MICROCIRCULATION, Issue 1 2007
TOM A. GARDINER
ABSTRACT Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most widespread complication of diabetes mellitus and a major cause of blindness in the working population of developed countries. The clinicopathology of the diabetic retina has been extensively studied, although the relative contribution of the various biochemical and molecular sequelae of hyperglycemia remains ill defined. Many neural and microvascular abnormalities occur in the retina of short-term diabetic animals but it remains uncertain how closely these acute changes relate to chronic human disease. It is important to determine the relationship between alterations observed within the first weeks or months in short-term animal models, and human disease, where clinically manifest retinopathy occurs only after durations of diabetes measured in years. This review is focused on the retinal microvasculature, although it should be appreciated that pathological changes in this system often occur in parallel with abnormalities in the neural parenchyma that may be derivative or even causal. Nevertheless, it is useful to reevaluate the microvascular lesions that are manifest in the retina during diabetes in humans and long-term animal models, since in addition to providing useful clues to the pathogenic basis of DR as a disease entity, it is in the deterrence of such changes that the efficacy of any novel treatment regimes will be measured. In particular, an emphasis will be placed on the relatively unappreciated role of arteriolar dysfunction in the clinical manifestations and pathology of this disease. [source]

Retinal arterioles have impaired reactivity to hyperoxia in type 1 diabetes

ACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue 4 2010
Birgitte L. Justesen
Abstract. Purpose:, Diabetes has adverse effects on the retinal microvasculature. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of inhalation of hypoxic, hyperoxic and normoxic,hypercapnic gas mixtures on retinal vessel diameter in people with and without diabetes. Methods:, Sixty-one participants (aged 24,50 years) 29 with (male : female ratio 2.6 : 1) and 32 without (male : female ratio 0.7 : 1) diabetes, inhaled hypoxic, hyperoxic and normoxic,hypercapnic gas mixtures for 3,5 mins. The diameters of arterioles and venules were measured using digital retinal images taken before and after gas inhalation. Results:, There was no significant difference in the diameters of arterioles and venules prior to gas inhalation in people with and without diabetes. Inhalation of the hyperoxic gas mixture caused a statistically significant decrease in arteriolar and venular diameters without altering mean arterial pressure significantly. Arteriolar vasoconstriction in response to the hyperoxic gas mixture was significantly reduced in people with diabetes (3.95% versus 7.75%; p = 0.04), but venular vasoconstriction did not differ significantly. A hypoxic gas mixture caused increased arteriolar and venular diameter and a normoxic,hypercapnic gas mixture had no significant effect on vessel diameter. Responses to hypoxic and normoxic,hypercapnic gas did not differ significantly between diabetes and non-diabetes subjects. Conclusions:, Type 1 diabetes impairs retinal arteriolar responses to hyperoxia. Abnormalities in retinal arteriolar reactivity in response to oxygen may play a role in the development of diabetic retinopathy and this technique may represent a simple means of identifying early abnormalities in the reactivity of retinal arterioles in diabetes. [source]

Retinal vascular image analysis as a potential screening tool for cerebrovascular disease: a rationale based on homology between cerebral and retinal microvasculatures