Cardiovascular diseases is the leading cause of threat to human life and health worldwide. Early risk assessment, timely diagnosis, and prognosis evaluation are critical to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Currently, the evaluation of diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases mainly relies on imaging examinations such as coronary CT and coronary angiography, which are expensive, time-consuming, partly invasive, and require high professional competence of the operator, making it difficult to promote in the community or in areas where medical resources are scarce. The fundus microcirculation is a part of the human microcirculation and has similar embryological origins and physiopathological features to cardiovascular circulation. Several studies have revealed fundus imaging biomarkers associated with cardiovascular diseases, and developed and validated intelligent diagnosis and treatment models for cardiovascular diseases based on fundus imaging data. Fundus imaging is expected to be an important adjunct to cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment given its noninvasive and convenient nature. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current research status, challenges, and future prospects of the application of artificial intelligence based on multimodal fundus imaging data in cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment.
