Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Blood Flow of the Human Retina

Qi Peng^1,2, Yi Zhang^1,2, Oscar San Emeterio Nateras^1,2, Timothy Q. Duong^1,2

Blood flow (BF) measurement of the human retina is challenging because the thin retina is located in a region of high magnetic susceptibility, is susceptible to eye motion and requires high spatial resolution. This study successfully demonstrated the feasibility of high spatial-resolution (500x800m) retinal BF measurement under baseline and hypercapnia. Pseudo-continuous arterial spin-labeling technique with background suppression and single-shot turbo spin-echo acquisition were employed to improve BF sensitivity, suppress vitreous signal, and achieve high spatial resolution free of image distortion and signal dropout. This approach could open up new avenues for retinal research and may have important clinical applications.