Accurate, quantitative assessment of retinal blood oxygen saturation (sO2 ) may provide a useful early indicator of pathophysiology in several ocular diseases. Here, with visible-light optical coherence tomography (OCT), we demonstrate an automated spectroscopic retinal oximetry algorithm to measure the sO2 within the retinal arteries (A-sO2 ) and veins (V-sO2 ) in rats by automatically detecting the vascular posterior boundary on cross-sectional structural OCT. The algorithm was validated in vitro with flow phantoms and in vivo in rats by comparing the sO2 results, respectively, to those obtained using a blood gas analyzer and pulse oximetry. We also investigated the response of oxygen extraction (A-V sO2 ), including inter-session reproducibility, at different inhaled oxygen concentrations.
Keywords: (100.2980) Image enhancement; (110.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (170.2655) Functional monitoring and imaging; (170.4470) Ophthalmology.