title: Red blood cells in retinal vascular disorders.
abstract: Microvascular circulation plays a vital role in regulating physiological functions, such as vascular resistance, and maintaining organ health. Pathologies such as hypertension, diabetes, or hematologic diseases affect the microcirculation posing a significant risk to human health. The retinal vasculature provides a unique window for non-invasive visualisation of the human circulation in vivo and retinal vascular image analysis has been established to predict the development of both clinical and subclinical cardiovascular, metabolic, renal and retinal disease in epidemiologic studies. Blood viscosity which was otherwise thought to play a negligible role in determining blood flow based on Poiseuille's law up to the 1970s has now been shown to play an equally if not a more important role in controlling microcirculation and quantifying blood flow. Understanding the hemodynamics/rheology of the microcirculation and its changes in diseased states remains a challenging task; this is due to the particulate nature of blood, the mechanical properties of the cells (such as deformability and aggregability) and the complex architecture of the microvasculature. In our review, we have tried to postulate a possible role of red blood cell (RBC) biomechanical properties and laid down future framework for research related to hemorrheological aspects of blood in patients with retinal vascular disorders.
authors.affiliation: National Healthcare Group Eye Institute, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore; Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom; School of Material Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological Universtiy, Singapore. Electronic address: rupesh_agrawal@ttsh.com.sg.
authors.forename: Rupesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sherwood
authors.affiliation: L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chhablani
authors.affiliation: L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ricchariya
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Sangho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Philip H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stavroula
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balabani
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shima
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004907:Erythrocyte Deformability; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D018056:Hemorheology; D006801:Humans; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology*; D012164:Retinal Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012171:Retinal Vessels / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: Blood flow; Hemorheological disorders; RBC; RBC deformability; Retinal vascular disorders; Rheology