Medical signs that can be detected from observation of eye fundus (generally by funduscopy) include hemorrhages, exudates, cotton wool spots, blood vessel abnormalities (tortuosity, pulsation and new vessels) and pigmentation.

A first two-dimensional in vivo depiction of a human eye fundus along a horizontal meridian based on white light interferometric depth scans was presented at the ICO-15 SAT conference in 1990.

The impediment of venous return causes visible changes in the eye fundus (venous engorgement, and papilledema, i.e. swelling and elevation of the optic nerve disc) that can be observed with an ophthalmoscope and have therefore been used by clinicians for more than a century as signs of increased ICP.