Current Use of Automatic Retinal Oximetry – a Review

Abstract

Purpose: To inform about possible use of the automatic retinal oximetry for the retinal oxygen saturation measurement in the eye and systemic diseases. Methods: We performed a literature review dealing with issues of retinal oxygen saturation monitoring by dual non-invasive retinal oximetry Oxymap T1 (Oxymap ehf. Reykjavík, Iceland). Results: We have found two main strains writing our paper on retinal oxygen saturation eye diseases. The first section concerns diseases created by having hypoxia as its main pathological factor - for example diabetes mellitus and retinal vein occlusion. The second group deals with atrophy as the main pathological mechanism which is typical for decreasing retinal oxygen consumption – for example glaucoma or retinitis pigmentosa (the second one named is not included in our work). Oximetry in systemic diseases creates a relatively new chapter of this branch with a very big potential of interdisciplinary cooperation for the future. It is possible the cooperation will not only include diabetologists but also neurologists (for example, in diseases like sclerosis multiplex or Devic‘s, Alzheimer‘s and Parkinson‘s disease) and haematologists (retinal oxygen saturation changes in patients with different rheological attributes of blood). Conclusion: Retinal oxygen saturation measuring by automatic retinal oximetry is a relatively new method with scientifically confirmed high reproducibility of results. Currently it is the only experimental method with vast potentials not only in the realm of the possibility of observing eye diseases (diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion or glaucoma) but also in developing interdisciplinary cooperation with diabetologists, neurologists and haematologists.