Abstract

SO.15.01

Physiology of blood flow regulation in the eye

Selim Orgül
Universitäts-Augenklinik, Universitätsspital Basel

Objective
Dysregulation of ocular blood flow plays a prominent role in the pathogenesis of many ocular diseases. Moreover, it is generally accepted that the status of the retinal vessels also is an indicator of cerebrovascular health. The present presentation will summarize relevant features of ocular blood flow regulation.
Methods
The impact of perturbing factors such as variation in blood gases, systemic blood pressure and intraocular pressure, the influence of the vegetative nervous system and local tissue nutritional needs, as well as the importance of endothelial mechanisms must be considered.
Results
Many factors contribute to the health of the local tissue, and the response in the ocular circulation is not uniform in all vascular beds. The responses also differ in the retina when compared to the brain. Moreover, in the microvasculature, the vascular tone refines not only the volume of blood flow, but also the intraluminal pressure, which is important to maintain tissue hydration and transmural transport of nutrients.
Conclusions
The complexity of the physiologic control of blood flow in the ocular microvasculature has certainly not been discovered entirely and is not understood completely yet.

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