Retinal vessels have embryological, anatomical and physiological similarities with coronary and cerebral vessels and many systemic vascular pathologies, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease affect the retinal vessels from function to structure. In addition, ocular disorders that constitute major public health problems, either directly involve retinal and/or choroidal vessels such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, or have vascular factors as risk factors such as myopia or glaucoma. Understanding the vascular processes that occur in these diseases could advance our understanding of visual compromise associated with these disorders and, possibly, their prevention. Moreover, using the eye as a window to the vascular health of the human body is also of major interest. As such, many efforts are made to develop technologies that are able to assess, in a non-invasive way, the functional and structural changes of retinal and choroidal vessels and provide biomarkers of ocular and systemic vascular diseases. These technologies could be used to assess not only the individual risk for development and progression of vascular disease at both the systemic and ocular level, but also the efficacy of various interventions, from prevention and medical treatments to surgical and laser procedures.
The goals of this Research Topics are:
- Improve our understanding of vascular involvement in eye disease
- Establish new biomarkers for ocular vascular and systemic circulatory disease
- Understand the ocular vasculature as a treatment target for ocular disease.
This Research Topic will highlight the latest findings in the field of vascular involvement in various eye diseases with or without association with systemic pathologies. The current Research Topic invites both basic and clinical studies. This may involve in vitro and in vivo work on the basic mechanisms of vascular alterations related to ocular disease but also to finding new ocular vascular biomarkers for risk of systemic circulatory diseases. Contributions emphasizing basic mechanisms, novel diagnostic and imaging techniques, but also advancements in the field of treatments and prevention methods, are all welcome.
Retinal vessels have embryological, anatomical and physiological similarities with coronary and cerebral vessels and many systemic vascular pathologies, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease affect the retinal vessels from function to structure. In addition, ocular disorders that constitute major public health problems, either directly involve retinal and/or choroidal vessels such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, or have vascular factors as risk factors such as myopia or glaucoma. Understanding the vascular processes that occur in these diseases could advance our understanding of visual compromise associated with these disorders and, possibly, their prevention. Moreover, using the eye as a window to the vascular health of the human body is also of major interest. As such, many efforts are made to develop technologies that are able to assess, in a non-invasive way, the functional and structural changes of retinal and choroidal vessels and provide biomarkers of ocular and systemic vascular diseases. These technologies could be used to assess not only the individual risk for development and progression of vascular disease at both the systemic and ocular level, but also the efficacy of various interventions, from prevention and medical treatments to surgical and laser procedures.
The goals of this Research Topics are:
- Improve our understanding of vascular involvement in eye disease
- Establish new biomarkers for ocular vascular and systemic circulatory disease
- Understand the ocular vasculature as a treatment target for ocular disease.
This Research Topic will highlight the latest findings in the field of vascular involvement in various eye diseases with or without association with systemic pathologies. The current Research Topic invites both basic and clinical studies. This may involve in vitro and in vivo work on the basic mechanisms of vascular alterations related to ocular disease but also to finding new ocular vascular biomarkers for risk of systemic circulatory diseases. Contributions emphasizing basic mechanisms, novel diagnostic and imaging techniques, but also advancements in the field of treatments and prevention methods, are all welcome.