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Ten-year incidence of retinal emboli in an older population
Sudha Cugati1, Jie Jin Wang, Elena Rochtchina
1Department of Ophthalmology, University of Sydney, Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Australia.
Background And Purpose:
To assess 10-year incidence of retinal emboli and its predictors in an older population.
Methods:
Survivors of 3654 Blue Mountains Eye Study participants > or =49 years of age were re-examined 5 and 10 years later. Incident emboli were assessed from retinal photographs.
Results:
Cumulative 10-year incidence was 2.9% (95% CI, 2.1% to 3.6%) among 2361 at risk. Age was associated with incident emboli (Ptrend=0.0001). After multivariate adjustment, hypertension (odds ratio [OR], 1.8; CI, 1.0 to 3.1), hypercholesterolemia (OR, 1.3; CI, 1.0 to 1.6), overweight (OR, 3.3; CI, 1.6 to 6.9), current smoking (OR, 2.5; CI, 1.1 to 5.9), increasing fibrinogen level (OR per mg/dL, 1.1; CI, 1.0 to 1.2), and retinal vascular signs (arteriovenous nicking OR, 2.0; CI, 1.2 to 3.6; arteriolar wall opacification OR, 2.3; CI, 1.1 to 5.0; retinal vein occlusion OR, 3.2; CI, 1.0 to 9.9) were significantly associated with incident emboli.
Conclusions:
The 3% incidence of retinal arteriolar emboli found in this older population is likely to be an underestimate attributable to the transient nature of emboli and differential loss to follow-up. Most cardiovascular risk factors predict retinal embolism.
