Yen-Yu Ian Shih1, Li
Guang1, Bryan H. De La Garza1, Eric R. Muir1,
Timothy Q. Duong1
1Research
Imaging Institute, University of
The retina is sandwiched by retinal and choroidal vasculature and has an avascular layer in between. This study employed high resolution spin-echo, gradient-echo MRI and MION to reveal ∆R2 and ∆R2* profiles across the retinal thickness at an 11.7T scanner using a retina linearization analysis. The MRI-based vessel density index was also tabulated. This technique has potential to serve as an alternative method of postmortem fluorescence microscopy-based vessel density measurement, which has been widely used to quantify retinal and choroidal vascular degeneration or neovascularization in retinal diseases.