Optical coherence tomography-based retinal vessel analysis for the evaluation of hypertensive vasculopathy

Purpose Evaluation of retinal vessels in cardiovascular disease traditionally relies upon funduscopy, but more recently digital photo analysis has expanded the spectrum. As spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows an in-vivo assessment of retinal tissue and its vessels on a histological scale, our study aimed at using this tool for the analysis of the retinal vasculature. Methods Circumferential peripapillary OCT scans (3DOCT-2000; Topcon Inc., Tokyo, Japan), with centration on the optic nerve head, were taken from 20 eyes (20 participants) with normal blood pressure and 20 eyes (20 participants) with arterial hypertension above 120 mmHg (mean blood pressure). The diameter …