The eye as a window on the body: mathematical modeling of retinal blood flow

Giovanna Guidoboni
IUPUI
Website of Giovanna Guidoboni

Location: Purdue University

Apr 26, 2014 2:45 PM

The eye is the only place in the human body where blood flow and systemic vascular features can be observed and measured easily and non-invasively down to the capillary level. Numerous clinical studies have shown correlations between alterations in retinal blood flow and ocular diseases (e.g. glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy), neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease) and other systemic diseases (e.g. hypertension, diabetes). Thus, deciphering the mechanisms governing retinal blood flow could be the key to the use of eye examinations as a non-invasive approach to the diagnosis and continuous monitoring for many patients.

However, many factors influence ocular hemodynamics, including intraocular pressure (IOP), arterial blood pressure and blood flow autoregulation, and it is extremely challenging to single out their individual contributions during clinical and animal studies. In the recent years, we have been developing mathematical models to aid the interpretation of clinical data. In this talk, we will present models describing (i) the blood flow in the retinal macro- and micro-vasculature, accounting for the IOP-induced deformation of the vessel walls; (ii) the autoregulation of blood flow in the retina, accounting for the myogenic, shear-stress, CO2 and O2 responses; (iv) O2 transport, diffusion and consumption in the retinal vasculature and tissue. Results will show how the synergy between mathematical modeling and clinical data allowed to estimate the relative contribution of IOP, arterial blood pressure and blood flow autoregulation on retinal perfusion, and the sensitivity of retinal oxygenation to changes in blood pressure and hematocrit.