Nasim Maleki1, David C. Alsop2, Weiying Dai2, Chris Hudson3,4, David Mikulis1, Jay Han5, Joseph A. Fisher5,6
1Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; 3School of Optometry, University of Toronto, Waterloo, ON, Canada; 4Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 5Department of Anesthesiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 6Thornhill Research Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada
Some of the major causes of irreversible vision loss are characterized by a pathophysiologic vascular dysfunction element. The feasibility of measurement of the total blood flow to the retina with an optimized arterial spin labeling method has been described previously. In the current study, we hypothesized that ASL can be used to measure the changes in flow to the combined retinal and choroidal system induced by hypercarbic and hyperoxic stimuli in human. Our results indicate that a CO2 provocation challenge in combination with the ASL may be a promising approach to investigate choroidal vascular reactivity under normal and disease states.