Laser speckle‐based retinal imager as a potential screening tool for mild cognitive impairment

Background As the overall population's life expectancy rises, so does the prevalence of age‐related cognitive impairment (CI). Recent evidence has shown that cognitive impairment (CI) is not limited to the brain and affects the retina. In this study, we characterized dynamic retinal blood flow (RBF) patterns using the XyCAM RI (Vasoptic Medical, Inc.), a non‐invasive, laser speckle‐based retinal imager, in cognitively normal subjects (CN), patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) including those with diabetic retinopathy (DR). Method A total of thirty‐four individuals (68 eyes) were imaged using the XyCAM RI. Normal cognitive function was determined using neuropsychological tests. High frame‐rate (82 Hz) RBF data was acquired over six seconds from each eye. As described and defined in Fig. 1, various dynamic RBF metrics were computed from the shape of the temporal waveform of blood flow velocity indices (BFVi) averaged within multiple arterial and venous segments intersecting a circular track around the optic disc. One‐way ANOVA was used to compare group means (p