Retinal oximetry and fractal analysis of capillary maps in sickle cell disease patients and matched healthy volunteers.

Birkhoff WAJ, van Manen L, Dijkstra J, De Kam ML, van Meurs JC, Cohen AF

Fractal analysis can be used to quantitatively analyze the retinal microvasculature and might be a suitable method to quantify retinal capillary changes in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Retinal oximetry measurements might function as a proxy for the pathophysiology of cerebrovascular diseases. Moreover, hypoxia has an important role in the pathophysiology of diabetic and other retinopathies. However, little is known about the oximetry around the macula in SCD patients. With this study, we explored the feasibility to perform these quantified measurements in SCD patients.