Clinical Research Directory

Optical Imaging of Retinal Vascular Metrics Under Different Dietary Conditions

Sponsor: Medical University of Vienna

Summary

In a typical clinical setting, patient eating habits are not controlled when performing optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging for retinal diagnostics. Nevertheless, the timing of the patient's most recent meal has the potential to impact OCT metrics particularly for those involving blood vessels, such as vascular density. Studies have shown that eating a high fat meal can increase blood fat levels in the hours following the meal. In particular, chylomicrons, the fat particles that will most likely affect the OCT signal, peak in concentration about 2-3 hours after eating. Preclinical animal studies have shown that intravascular injections of fat emulsions in rodent models can cause an increase in OCT signal and make blood vessels more visible. This study investigates the impact of a single high fat meal on OCT and OCT angiography (OCTA) measurements of retinal vessels and whether these effects differ from the effects of a single low-fat, high carbohydrate meal.

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