Walid Albanna, Catharina Conzen, Miriam Weiss, Katharina Seyfried, Konstantin Kotliar, Tobias Philip Schmidt, David Kuerten, Jürgen Hescheler, Anne Bruecken, Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss, Felix Neumaier, Martin Wiesmann, Hans Clusmann, Gerrit Alexander Schubert
- Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) is a common complication after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and can lead to infarction and poor clinical outcome. The underlying mechanisms are still incompletely understood, but animal models indicate that vasoactive metabolites and inflammatory cytokines produced within the subarachnoid space may progressively impair and partially invert neurovascular coupling (NVC) in the brain. Because cerebral and retinal microvasculature are governed by comparable regulatory mechanisms and may be connected by perivascular pathways, retinal vascular changes are increasingly recognized as a potential surrogate for altered NVC in the brain. Here, we used non-invasive retinal vessel analysis (RVA) to assess microvascular function in aSAH patients at different times after the ictus.