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Retinal single-cell blood velocity in eyes with varied axial length using adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy

Eye volume 40, pages 268–274 (2026)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

To investigate the hemodynamic changes in the retinal vasculature of the macular region in eyes with axial myopia.

Methods

Individuals with varying axial lengths were included in this study. Inclusion criteria was the absence of any ocular or systemic diseases. A commercial adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy was used to capture images of retinal vessels within the 5°-10° areas above and below the foveal centre. This system provided noninvasive imaging of single blood cells and automatically calculated blood velocity while detecting the flow direction. Vessels were classified based on their diameter.

Results

The study included 90 patients (180 eyes; 35 (38.9%) men) with a mean age of 34.3 ± 12.2 years (range: 19-62 years) and a mean axial length of 25.8 ± 1.9 mm (range: 21.4–30.6 mm). The mean blood velocity in retinal arteries and veins was 35.2 ± 11.4 mm/s and 34.9 ± 13.2 mm/s, respectively. Single-cell blood velocity was significantly increased with longer axial length in large retinal arteries (diamater≥100μm) (B = 2.73; β = 0.32; P = 0.01); and medium retinal arteries (diameter<100μm) (B = 1.83; β = 0.27; P = 0.003). Correspondingly, the blood velocity of medium retinal arteries in the myopic group was significantly higher than that in the non-myopic group (t = 3.37; P = 0.001). Single-cell blood velocity was significantly increased with longer axial length in medium retinal veins (diameter <110 μm) (B = 2.0; β = 0.3; P = 0.016). Correspondingly, the blood velocity of medium retinal veins in the myopic group was significantly higher than that in the non-myopic group (t = 2.25; P = 0.03).

Conclusions

Single-cell retinal blood velocity was significantly increased with longer axial length. These findings suggest that the hemodynamic changes observed in axial myopia, including higher arterial and venous blood velocities, may provide a potential explanation for the lower prevalence of diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and branch retinal vein occlusion reported in previous epidemiological studies.

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Fig. 1: Workflow for capturing retinal blood vessels, calculating vessel diameter, and determining single-cell blood velocity.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82220108017, 82141128, 82401283); The Capital Health Research and Development of Special (2024-1-2052); Science & Technology Project of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Z201100005520045); Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (No. SZSM202311018); R&D Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission (No. KM202410025011); The priming scientific research foundation for the junior researcher in Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University (No. 2023-YJJ-ZZL-003).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Wen-Da Zhou, Li Dong, Yu-Hang Yang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing key Laboratory of Intraocular Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment, Beijing Ophthalmology& Visual Sciences Key Lab, Medical Artificial Intelligence Research and Verification Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Intelligent Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Blinding Eye Diseases, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100730, China

    Wen-Da Zhou, Li Dong, Yu-Hang Yang, Han-Qing Zhao, Rui-Heng Zhang, Yi-Tong Li, Chu-Yao Yu, He-Yan Li, Hao-Tian Wu, Xu-Han Shi, Lei Shao & Wen-Bin Wei

Authors
  1. Wen-Da Zhou
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  2. Li Dong
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Contributions

Concept and design: WDZ, WBW; Data collection and analysis: WDZ, LD, YHY, RHZ, YTL, CYY, HYL, HTW, LS; Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: WDZ, LD, YHY, WBW; Revision and final approval of the manuscript: All authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen-Bin Wei.

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Competing interests

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Statement

This study adheres to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. and was approved by The Institutional Review Board and Medical Ethics Committee at Beijing Tongren Hospital approved this study (TRECKY2018-056-GZ (2022)-07). The written informed consent was obtained from all subjects after the nature and possible complications of the study protocol were explained.

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Zhou, WD., Dong, L., Yang, YH. et al. Retinal single-cell blood velocity in eyes with varied axial length using adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. Eye 40, 268–274 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-025-04155-9

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