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Clinical Research in Cardiology

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01-07-2021 | Hyperglycemia | Original Paper

Non-invasive evaluation of retinal vascular remodeling and hypertrophy in humans: intricate effect of ageing, blood pressure and glycaemia

Authors: Antonio Gallo, Thomas Dietenbeck, Alain Giron, Michel Paques, Nadjia Kachenoura, Xavier Girerd

Published in: Clinical Research in Cardiology | Issue 7/2021

Abstract

Background

Ageing, hypertension and diabetes have an intricate effect on microvascular structure. In the retina, the respective contribution of remodeling and hypertrophy in such process is still unclear. We aimed at disentangling age, blood pressure and glycaemia effects on retinal microcirculation using the non-invasive adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy (AOO).

Methods

We included 429 subjects, distributed into 4 groups according to normal (nBP) or high blood pressure (hBP) and/or normal (nGly) or high fasting glycaemia (hGly). The nBP/nGly group was stratified in age tertiles to isolate the effect of ageing. AOO was used to measure arteriolar wall thickness (WT, µm), arteriolar (aID, µm) and venular internal diameter (vID, µm) and calculate arteriolar wall-to-lumen ratio (WLR), wall cross-sectional area (WCSA, µm²). One-way ANOVA for parametric variables and Kruskal–Wallis test for non-parametric variables were used for comparison among groups. A multivariate regression analysis including age, gender, BP, hGly and antihypertensive treatment was performed to calculate independent predictors of retinal remodeling.

Results

WT was increased with ageing (tertile1: 22.5 ± 3.2, tertile2: 24.2 ± 3.5, tertile 3: 25.2 ± 3.8, p = 0.001) and BP (hBP: 25.2 ± 4.1 vs nBP: 23.9 ± 3.7, p = 0.003). aID decreased with BP (hBP: 90.2 ± 13.4 vs nBP: 93.6 ± 11.6, p = 0.013) and increased with glycaemia (hGly: 97.7 ± 12.5 vs nGly: 93.6 ± 11.6, p = 0.002). A multivariate analysis showed independent association of hBP with WLR; hGly with WCSA; ageing with WLR and WCSA.

Conclusions

AOO non-invasively identifies retinal structural changes in human confirming that microvascular remodeling is exclusively related to hypertension, whereas vascular growth is related to ageing and hyperglycaemia.

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Title: Non-invasive evaluation of retinal vascular remodeling and hypertrophy in humans: intricate effect of ageing, blood pressure and glycaemia
Authors: Antonio Gallo
Thomas Dietenbeck
Alain Giron
Michel Paques
Nadjia Kachenoura
Xavier Girerd
Publication date: 01-07-2021
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keywords: Hyperglycemia
Hypertension
Hypertension
Published in: Clinical Research in Cardiology / Issue 7/2021
Print ISSN: 1861-0684
Electronic ISSN: 1861-0692
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-020-01680-3

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Abstract

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Conclusions

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