Retinal vasculature adapts to changes in systemic hemodynamics and circulation, and retinal imaging offers a unique opportunity to visualise and document them. Hypertensive retinopathy, as an example of systemic retinal abnormalities, was first described by Marcus Gunn in the late 19th century. However, only recent advances in retinal imaging, digital methods of image analysis, founded on a better understanding of retinal physiology and pathology, have enabled a major shift in how the retina becomes a window into cardiovascular health. While retinal changes can exhibit prominent acute effects, such as malignant hypertension, the real value of oculomics in cardiovascular health assessment lies in its ability to quantify the gradually accumulating impacts that occur in response to chronic hemodynamic shifts. This new approach not only facilitates the evaluation of cardiovascular risk, heart failure, and blood pressure dynamics, but it also revolutionises the role of optometry, bringing it into the state-of-the-art stage of research and holistic health evaluation.

Learning outcomes

1. Understand the retinal effects of high blood pressure, hemodynamics, and cardiovascular abnormalities.
2. Understanding the fundamentals of imaging-based AI methods used to assess cardiovascular risk.
3. Understanding how AI methods can be applied to assess systemic cardiovascular effects using retinal imaging.
4. Review of new advances in oculomics in cardiovascular medicine.