In order to put in practical use the fundus imaging technologies for screening and diagnosis of lifestyle-related diseases at a very early stage, clinical requirements, technical seeds, current situation, and challenges of their R&D have been investigated in this study.
For prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, the finding emphasizes the need of medical instruments that can observe and measure quantitively morphological characteristics and metabolic functions of retina vessels and structure, which is impossible for present ophthalmic equipment. Also, for preventive treatment of the diseases, it points out the usefulness of medical instruments that can provide pathological information on retina vessels, such as unstable hemodynamics, abnormal behavior of blood cells, vessel wall thickening, and lessening function.