Abstract
Purpose: :
To study the relationship between retinal vessel diameters and microalbuminuria.
Methods: :
The Inter99 study comprised an age- and sex-stratified sample of 13,016 participants residing in 11 suburban municipalities of the south-western part of Copenhagen County. Of 6784 subjects aged 30-60 years who volunteered to participate in the main study, a subgroup of 970 subjects participated in the eye study. We investigated the relation between fundus photographic retinal vessel diameters, microalbuminuria, arterial blood pressure, and other covariates. Vessel diameters were expressed as central retinal artery equivalent diameter (CRAE), central retinal vein equivalent diameter (CRVE), and artery-to-vein diameter ratio (AVR). Data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.
Results: :
Microalbuminuria was not affected by age (p=0,69), glycemia (p=0,73), body mass index (p=0,42), mean arterial blood pressure (p=0,19), or gender (p=0,41). After correction for these covariates, which influence retinal vessel diameters, there was no significant association between microalbuminuria and CRAE (p=0,91), CRVE (p=0,61), or AVR (p=0,69).
Conclusions: :
In the Inter99 Eye study, there was no statistically significant association between microalbuminuria and retinal vessel diameters after controlling for major confounding factors.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: treatment/prevention assessment/controlled clinical trials • retina • retinal connections, networks, circuitry