Dual beam Doppler FD-OCT system with integrated Dynamic Vessel Analyzer and rotatable beams to measure total retinal blood flow

Abstract

We present a method capable of measuring the total retinal blood flow in arteries and veins based on dual beam Fourierdomain Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) in combination with a fundus camera based Dynamic Vessel Analyzer. Incorporating a Dynamic vessel analyzer into the system not only gives a live image of the fundus – it also allows determining the vessels’ diameter precisely during the OCT measurement, which is necessary for the determination of the blood flow. While dual beam systems with fixed detection plane allow only vessels with certain orientations to be measured, the detection plane of our system can be rotated by 90°. This ensures that the blood’s velocity can be measured in all vessels around the optic nerve head. The results of the total blood flow measurements are in the same range as previously published data. Additionally, the high degree of conformity between the measured venous and arterial flow corroborated the system’s validity. For larger vessels, the logarithmic values of vessel diameter and blood flow were found to be related linearly with a regression coefficient of around 3, which is in accordance with Murray’s law. For smaller vessels (diameter below 60 μm), the values diverge from the linear dependence. The high sensitivity and the good agreement with published data suggest a high potential for examining the retinal blood flow in patients with ocular diseases.