Experimental Characterization and Correlation of Mayer Waves in Retinal Vessel Diameter and Arterial Blood Pressure

Retinal vessels show various biological temporal variations that can impact diagnosis using a static vessel analysis. In this study, Mayer waves in the retinal vessel diameter and arterial blood pressure (BP) signals were characterized, and the temporal correlation between these two modalities was investigated. The arterial and venous vessel diameters and arterial BP were recorded simultaneously on human subjects. The obtained vessel diameters showed vasomotion amplitudes over time. The vessel diameter and BP signals contained multiple signals in the frequency domain and varied over time. The signal characteristics were similar within the measurements. The BP and arterial and venous vessel diameters were correlated. The highest correlation values between the signals were observed for shifts of 1 or 0 periods. The spectrum and amplitudes of the Mayer waves showed a high variability. The Mayer waves in the retinal vessel diameters showed the same characteristics as those in the arterial BP. A temporal dependency between the oscillations in the arterial BP and retinal vessel diameters was shown.