Abstract

The diameter of the red blood cell column (RBCC) in retinal vessels is a useful measure of retinal vascular response to physiological perturbations and pathological conditions. A modular instrument capable of measuring the RBCC of retinal vessels in realtime can be coupled with simultaneous measurement of mean RBC speed to obtain an instantaneous measure of blood flow. An instrument which provides a real-time and continuous measure of RBC speed such as the stabilized laser Doppler Velocimeter is uniquely suited to this application. In practice the diameter of the RBCC is generally based on a measure of the width of the retinal vessel image on fundus photographs or fluorescein angiograms. An article by Delori et al³ describes and evaluates different methods which have been used to determine the width of the RBCC image.

© 1991 Optical Society of America