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Review
. 2018 Jan 4:12:79-84.
doi: 10.2147/OPTH.S128459. eCollection 2018.

Glaucoma related retinal oximetry: a technology update

Zhu Li Yap  1   2 , Sushma Verma  2 , Yi Fang Lee  1   2 , Charles Ong  1   2 , Aditi Mohla  1   2 , Shamira A Perera  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Glaucoma related retinal oximetry: a technology update

Zhu Li Yap et al. Clin Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

There are two long-standing theories about the pathogenesis of glaucoma - barotrauma and the effect of vascular hypoxia. Currently, it is still unknown whether diminished blood flow is the cause or result of glaucomatous atrophy of ganglion cells and the optic nerve. Though many other imaging techniques used to directly assess ocular blood flow have been well studied, they are limited by their inability to directly assess metabolism in the ocular tissues or measure the oxygen carrying capacity in the vessels. Retinal oximetry is a relatively novel, noninvasive imaging technique that reliably measures oxygen saturation levels in the retinal vessels, offering surrogate markers for the metabolic demands of the eye. The clinical significance of these measurements has not been well established. Thus, this review gives an overview of ocular imaging and current retinal oximetry techniques, while contextualizing the important oximetry studies that have investigated the vascular theory behind glaucoma.

Keywords: Oxymap; glaucoma; glaucoma imaging; retinal oximetry; retinal vasculature.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Image from the Oxymap system showing oxygen saturation in the retinal vessels.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Image from the Vesselmap system showing oxygen saturation in the retinal vessels. Note: Copyright Imedos Systems UG.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Image from the Oxymap Analyzer showing disrupted vessel detection due to the presence of a cataract.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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