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Danielescu C, Dabija MG, Nedelcu AH, Lupu VV, Lupu A, Ioniuc I, Gîlcă-Blanariu GE, Donica VC, Anton ML, Musat O. Automated Retinal Vessel Analysis Based on Fundus Photographs as a Predictor for Non-Ophthalmic Diseases-Evolution and Perspectives. J Pers Med 2023; 14:45. [PMID: 38248746 PMCID: PMC10817503 DOI: 10.3390/jpm14010045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Revised: 12/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
The study of retinal vessels in relation to cardiovascular risk has a long history. The advent of a dedicated tool based on digital imaging, i.e., the retinal vessel analyzer, and also other software such as Integrative Vessel Analysis (IVAN), Singapore I Vessel Assessment (SIVA), and Vascular Assessment and Measurement Platform for Images of the Retina (VAMPIRE), has led to the accumulation of a formidable body of evidence regarding the prognostic value of retinal vessel analysis (RVA) for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease (including arterial hypertension in children). There is also the potential to monitor the response of retinal vessels to therapies such as physical activity or bariatric surgery. The dynamic vessel analyzer (DVA) remains a unique way of studying neurovascular coupling, helping to understand the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative conditions and also being complementary to techniques that measure macrovascular dysfunction. Beyond cardiovascular disease, retinal vessel analysis has shown associations with and prognostic value for neurological conditions, inflammation, kidney function, and respiratory disease. Artificial intelligence (AI) (represented by algorithms such as QUantitative Analysis of Retinal vessel Topology and siZe (QUARTZ), SIVA-DLS (SIVA-deep learning system), and many others) seems efficient in extracting information from fundus photographs, providing prognoses of various general conditions with unprecedented predictive value. The future challenges will be integrating RVA and other qualitative and quantitative risk factors in a unique, comprehensive prediction tool, certainly powered by AI, while building the much-needed acceptance for such an approach inside the medical community and reducing the "black box" effect, possibly by means of saliency maps.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ciprian Danielescu
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania;
| | - Marius Gabriel Dabija
- Department of Surgery II, Discipline of Neurosurgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania;
| | - Alin Horatiu Nedelcu
- Department of Morpho-Functional Sciences I, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania;
| | - Vasile Valeriu Lupu
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania; (V.V.L.); (I.I.)
| | - Ancuta Lupu
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania; (V.V.L.); (I.I.)
| | - Ileana Ioniuc
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania; (V.V.L.); (I.I.)
| | | | - Vlad-Constantin Donica
- Doctoral School, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania; (V.-C.D.); (M.-L.A.)
| | - Maria-Luciana Anton
- Doctoral School, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa”, 700115 Iasi, Romania; (V.-C.D.); (M.-L.A.)
| | - Ovidiu Musat
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, 020021 Bucuresti, Romania;
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Warner L, Bach-Hagemann A, Schmidt TP, Pinkernell S, Schubert GA, Clusmann H, Albanna W, Lindauer U, Conzen-Dilger C. Opening a window to the acutely injured brain: Simultaneous retinal and cerebral vascular monitoring in rats. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 16:1116841. [PMID: 37033376 PMCID: PMC10079937 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1116841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Many recent research projects have described typical chronic changes in the retinal vasculature for diverse neurovascular and neurodegenerative disorders such as stroke or Alzheimer's disease. Unlike cerebral vasculature, retinal blood vessels can be assessed non-invasively by retinal vessel analysis. To date, there is only a little information about potential simultaneous reactions of retinal and cerebral vessels in acute neurovascular diseases. The field of applications of retinal assessment could significantly be widened if more information about potential correlations between those two vascular beds and the feasibility of non-invasive retinal vessel analysis in acute neurovascular disease were available. Here, we present our protocol for the simultaneous assessment of retinal and cerebral vessels in an acute setting in anesthetized rats using a non-invasive retinal vessel analyzer and a superficial tissue imaging system for laser speckle contrast analysis via a closed bone window. We describe the experimental set-up in detail, outline the pitfalls of repeated retinal vessel analyses in an experimental set-up of several hours, and address issues that arise from the simultaneous use of two different assessment tools. Finally, we demonstrate the robustness and variability of the reactivity of retinal vessels to hypercapnia at baseline as well as their reproducibility over time using two anesthetic protocols common for neurovascular research. In summary, the procedures described in this protocol allow us to directly compare retinal and cerebral vascular beds and help to substantiate the role of the retina as a "window to the brain."
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Warner
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Annika Bach-Hagemann
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine, Department of Preclinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Hannover, Germany
| | - Tobias P. Schmidt
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Sarah Pinkernell
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Gerrit A. Schubert
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Department of Neurosurgery, Kantonsspital Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland
| | - Hans Clusmann
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Walid Albanna
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Institute for Neurophysiology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Ute Lindauer
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Catharina Conzen-Dilger
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- *Correspondence: Catharina Conzen-Dilger
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Activation of HIF-1α/VEGF-A pathway by deferoxamine ameliorates retinal hypoxia in a rat subarachnoid hemorrhage model. Neuroreport 2022; 33:690-696. [DOI: 10.1097/wnr.0000000000001835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Warner L, Bach-Hagemann A, Albanna W, Clusmann H, Schubert GA, Lindauer U, Conzen-Dilger C. Vascular Reactivity to Hypercapnia Is Impaired in the Cerebral and Retinal Vasculature in the Acute Phase After Experimental Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. Front Neurol 2022; 12:757050. [PMID: 35095718 PMCID: PMC8793938 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.757050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective: Impaired cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation, such as reduced reactivity to hypercapnia, contributes to the pathophysiology after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), but temporal dynamics in the acute phase are unknown. Featuring comparable molecular regulation mechanisms, the retinal vessels participate in chronic and subacute stroke- and SAH-associated vessel alterations in patients and can be studied non-invasively. This study is aimed to characterize the temporal course of the cerebral and retinal vascular reactivity to hypercapnia in the acute phase after experimental SAH and compare the potential degree of impairment.Methods: Subarachnoid hemorrhage was induced by injecting 0.5 ml of heparinized autologous blood into the cisterna magna of male Wistar rats using two anesthesia protocols [isoflurane/fentanyl n = 25 (Sham + SAH): Iso—Group, ketamine/xylazine n = 32 (Sham + SAH): K/X—Group]. CBF (laser speckle contrast analysis) and physiological parameters were measured continuously for 6 h. At six predefined time points, hypercapnia was induced by hypoventilation controlled via blood gas analysis, and retinal vessel diameter (RVD) was determined non-invasively.Results: Cerebral reactivity and retinal reactivity in Sham groups were stable with only a slight attenuation after 2 h in RVD of the K/X—Group. In the SAH Iso—Group, cerebral and retinal CO2 reactivity compared to baseline was immediately impaired starting at 30 min after SAH (CBF p = 0.0090, RVD p = 0.0135) and lasting up to 4 h (p = 0.0136, resp. p = 0.0263). Similarly, in the K/X—Group, cerebral CO2 reactivity was disturbed early after SAH (30 min, p = 0.003) albeit showing a recovery to baseline after 2 h while retinal CO2 reactivity was impaired over the whole observation period (360 min, p = 0.0001) in the K/X—Group. After normalization to baseline, both vascular beds showed a parallel behavior regarding the temporal course and extent of impairment.Conclusion: This study provides a detailed temporal analysis of impaired cerebral vascular CO2 reactivity starting immediately after SAH and lasting up to 6 h. Importantly, the retinal vessels participate in these acute changes underscoring the promising role of the retina as a potential non-invasive screening tool after SAH. Further studies will be required to determine the correlation with functional outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Warner
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Annika Bach-Hagemann
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Walid Albanna
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Hans Clusmann
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Gerrit A. Schubert
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Department of Neurosurgery, Kantonsspital Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland
| | - Ute Lindauer
- Translational Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Catharina Conzen-Dilger
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- *Correspondence: Catharina Conzen-Dilger
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