Functional OCT reveals anisotropic changes of retinal flicker-evoked vasodilation.

The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of anisotropic property of retinal biomechanics on vasodilation measurement. A custom-built optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used for time-lapse imaging of flicker stimulation-evoked vessel lumen changes in mouse retinas. A comparative analysis revealed significantly larger (18.21%) lumen dilation in the axial direction compared to the lateral (10.77%) direction. The axial lumen dilation predominantly resulted from the top vessel wall movement toward the vitreous direction, whereas the bottom vessel wall remained stable. This observation indicates that the traditional vasodilation measurement in the lateral direction may result in an underestimated value.