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

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of anatomy Vol. 206; no. 4; pp. 319 - 348
Main Authors: Patton, Niall, Aslam, Tariq, MacGillivray, Thomas, Pattie, Alison, Deary, Ian J., Dhillon, Baljean
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.04.2005
Blackwell Science Inc
Subjects:
Aging - physiology
anatomical and physiological homology
Blood-Brain Barrier
Blood-Retinal Barrier
Capillaries
cerebral microvasculature
Cerebrovascular Circulation
cerebrovascular disease
Cerebrovascular Disorders - diagnosis
Cerebrovascular Disorders - pathology
Dementia - pathology
Diabetes Mellitus - pathology
digital image analysis
Fundus Oculi
Humans
Hypertension - pathology
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Mass Screening - methods
Ophthalmoscopes
Photography
retinal microvasculature
Retinal Vessels - pathology
Review
ISSN:0021-8782, 1469-7580
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary: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.
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ISSN:0021-8782
1469-7580
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-7580.2005.00395.x