No abstract

Retinal arteriolar oxygen saturation is stable in healthy individuals, while there is a significant decrease in venular oxygen saturation with age in males and a similar trend in females. AV difference increases significantly with age for both sexes. Our study provided normative data for spectrophotometric retinal oximetry in the Caucasian population.

The retinal oximeter is reliable, easy to use, and sensitive to changes in SO(2) when concentration of O(2) in inhaled air is changed.

Retinal vessel oxygen saturation is higher in patients with diabetic retinopathy than in healthy controls. Possible explanations include shunting of blood through preferential channels, bypassing non-perfused capillaries in the capillary network. Parts of the retinal tissue may be hypoxic while blood in larger vessels has high oxygen saturation.