Image-Based Retinal Haemodynamics Simulation of Healthy and Pathological Retinal Vasculature

The current study aims to develop a comprehensive computational framework for quantitatively investigating haemodynamics in retinal arterial and venous networks. Two different pathological conditions, diabetic retinopathy and hypertension, have been considered, and the retinal haemodynamics change due to these pathologies has been investigated. Further, the comparison has been made with the healthy retinal vasculature. The retinal vascular tree has been extracted from the fundus images. The blood flow through the vasculature has been simulated, keeping into account the Fåhraeus–Lindqvist effect to incorporate the viscosity changes. Simulated results reveal that the blood flow velocity in arteries and veins decreases with the increase in the radial distance for all the cases. Further, higher average blood velocity and wall shear stress (WSS) are observed in the retinal network of diabetic and hypertension cases compared to the healthy ones. The current numerical model will help delineate the effect of structural changes in the retinal vasculature due to different pathological conditions on the retinal haemodynamics, which may be used as a helpful prognosis tool by ophthalmologists.