The eye and the heart are two closely interlinked organs, and many diseases affecting the cardiovascular system manifest in the eye. To contribute to the understanding of blood flow propagation towards the retina, we developed a method to acquire electrocardiogram (ECG) coupled time-resolved dynamic optical coherence tomography (OCT) images. This method allows for continuous synchronised monitoring of the cardiac cycle and retinal blood flow dynamics. The dynamic OCT measurements were used to calculate time-resolved blood flow profiles using fringe washout analysis. The relative fringe washout was computed to generate the flow velocity profiles within arterioles at the optic nerve head rim. We found that the blood column between the heart and the retina propagates within one cardiac cycle, denoting the arrival time as the heart-retina time (HRT). In a group of healthy subjects, the HRT was 144 ± 19 ms (mean ± SD). The HRT could provide a novel potential biomarker for cardiovascular health in direct relation to retinal perfusion.
Keywords: Cardiac cycle; Dynamic optical coherence tomography; Electrocardiogram; Heart-retina time; Retinal blood flow.
© 2025. The Author(s).