Ocular blood flow autoregulation and the clinical implications of its alteration

Abstract Autoregulation is commonly defined as the ability of a vascular bed to adapt blood flow to changes in ocular perfusion pressure (pressure autoregulation) or to adapt to changes in metabolic need (metabolic autoregulation). Considering the high metabolic turnover of the eye, its intact function is strongly dependent on a stable blood supply, assured by an intact vascular autoregulation. However, it has been shown that in the recent years that several ocular diseases such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy or age related macula degeneration are associated with an impaired autoregulation. This vascular dysregulation may lead to an under‐ or overperfusion of the tissue and in turn to ischemia and/or oxidative stress. This talk seeks to summarize our current knowledge of autoregulation in the ocular vascular beds. Furthermore, the possible reasons of impaired autoregulation and how this may relate to ocular pathologies will be discussed.