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Retinal Vascular Caliber in Coronary Heart Disease and Its Risk Factors
Changsen Liang1, Chen Gu2, Ning Wang3
1Jinan Seventh People's Hospital, Jinan, China, senlvning@163.com.
Insights
Smaller retinal arteriolar diameter predicts coronary heart disease (CHD). Retinal vascular caliber also correlates with key CHD risk factors like age, sex, BMI, hypertension, and diabetes.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Cardiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Retinal vascular diameter is a potential predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD).
- Previous studies on this relationship have yielded controversial results.
- Reliability of retinal vascular diameter as a CHD predictor requires further investigation.
Conclusions:
- A smaller retinal arteriolar caliber is linked to CHD.
- Retinal venule caliber did not show a significant difference between CHD and healthy groups.
- Retinal vascular caliber is independently associated with CHD risk factors including age, sex, BMI, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes.
Background:
Many clinical and experimental articles have suggested that the retinal vascular diameter can be used as a predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the results and reliability of the prediction are still controversial.
Objective:
A meta-analysis of observational study was conducted to clarify the relationships of retinal vessel caliber with CHD and CHD risk factors.
Method:
PubMed and Embase were searched for all observational studies on the relationship of retinal vessel caliber with CHD and CHD risk factors from 2001 to 2021. The meta-analysis has been registered in PROSPERO (registration number is CRD42021267154).
Result:
A total of 14 articles were selected for the inclusion in this meta-analysis. In the primary outcome, smaller retinal arteriolar caliber was related to CHD, and the results achieved statistical significance (MD: -5.55, 95% CI: -8.07 to -3.02, p < 0.0001), while there was no significant difference in vein caliber between CHD and healthy people (MD: 1.10, 95% CI: -3.55 to 5.76, p = 0.64 > 0.05). Smaller retinal arteriolar caliber was related to increasing age, male sex, bigger BMI, and hypertension. Bigger retinal arteriolar caliber was related to current smoking. Smaller retinal venule caliber was related to increasing age and hypertension. Bigger retinal venule caliber was related to current smoking, bigger BMI, and diabetes.
Conclusion:
Smaller retinal arteriolar caliber was related to CHD, while there was no significant difference in venule caliber between CHD and healthy people. Retinal vascular caliber also independently related to CHD risk factors (e.g., age, gender, smoke, BMI, hypertension, and diabetes).
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