Abstract
Purpose :
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality that affects millions of people worldwide. To-date, risk stratification tools for CHD are complex, relying on cumbersome and time-consuming diagnostic techniques with modest results. Therefore, many patients need to undergo invasive coronary angiography for the definite diagnosis of CHD to be made. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of retinal imaging of microvascular architecture and perfusion for the identification of novel biomarkers to accurately predict the development and progression of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Methods :
In this prospective, cross-sectional pilot study we included all patients presenting to a tertiary referral center for coronary angiography (CA) due to suspected CHD. All patients underwent optical coherence tomography angiography of both eyes to measure vessel density (VD) and fractal dimension (FD) of the individual capillary plexuses in 6×6-mm macular volume scans.
Results :
Of the included 554 patients (171 female; 65 ± 11 years old), 362 had confirmed CHD in CA
VD in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP) was significantly lower in CHD patients (OD: SCP r=0,03; DCP r= 0,02) and there was a significant difference in FD (OD: SCP r=0,001; DCP r=0,005).
Conclusions :
In patients with CVD, we observed a high prevalence of microvascular changes in retinal OCT-As. This high-resolution quantitative microvascular phenotyping in the retina may provide valuable subclinical indicators for coronary artery impairment.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.