Evidence That Cardiac Pulse Strains Retinal Vessels in and near the Optic Disc During Ocular Ductions.

Imaging was repeated in central, and horizontally (30° adduction/abduction) and vertically eccentric gazes (10° supraduction/infraduction).

Retinal vessels, optic disc, and fovea were segmented using custom-trained, deep learning-based models.

Frame to frame vascular displacements were automatically determined using optical flow analysis, allowing computation of equivalent strain.

After adjustment for age and axial length, pulsatile maximum and minimum strain were influenced slightly by gaze direction, maximally for supraduction, whereas mean strain did not vary significantly with gaze.