Abstract
Purpose: :
To examine associations between hypertension (HTN), MRI–based general brain atrophy (GBA), and retinal arteriole–to–venule ratio (AVR) in middle–aged individuals.
Methods: :
29 consecutive individuals underwent medical evaluation, cerebral MRI, and non–mydriatic fundus photography. Utilizing image analysis software developed in–house, GBA and AVR were measured using published procedures blind to subject characteristics.
Results: :
Ten patients met our definition of HTN. Four of these patients also met criteria for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Patients were 61.7 + 8.2 years old and had 16.1 + 2.1 years of education, and 45% were female. Our retinal AVR measurements were very reliable; the intra–class correlation coefficient (ICC) between two independent raters for the central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE), central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE), and AVR were 0.88, 0.83, and 0.89 respectively.
Hypertension was significantly associated with increased GBA (t = –2.57, df, 10.97, p = 0.03). Although the HTN group had smaller AVRs than the normotensive group (0.66 + 0.06 vs. 0.69 + 0.08), the difference was not significant. There were no significant associations between AVR and GBA among the HTN group (r = – 0.15, n = 10, p = 0.69). However, when individuals with diabetes were excluded this association became much stronger (r = – 0.63; n = 6, p = 0.18).
Conclusions: :
HTN was significantly associated with GBA, whereas AVR was not. However, when diabetics were excluded the HTN group, there was a stronger association between AVR and GBA. This will be further investigated with a larger cohort.
Keywords: retina • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • aging