Declines in carotid arteries, retinal vasculature related, study finds

A greater stiffness of the carotid arteries is related to a generalized narrowing of the retinal arterioles, independent of blood pressure and other vascular factors, a large cohort study has found. This finding supports a link between the microvascular and macrovascular disease processes involved in stroke, the study authors said.

Duanping Liao, MD, PhD, and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study of 8,031 people between 45 and 64 years of age to determine what, if any, relationship exists between carotid artery stiffness and retinal arteriolar narrowing. Carotid artery stiffness is generally a marker of early atherosclerosis, while retinal arteriolar narrowing is a marker of arteriolosclerosis.

Carotid arterial stiffness was estimated from high-resolution ultrasonic echo tracking and was defined as adjusted arterial diameter change, the study authors said. Generalized retinal arteriolar narrowing was estimated from diameter measurements of retinal vessels from digitized retinal photographs and summarized as an arteriole-to-venule ratio (AVR).

Decreasing adjusted arterial diameter change was associated with a decreasing AVR after controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, hypertension, diabetes and cigarette smoking. The pattern of the graded association between carotid arterial stiffness and generalized retinal arteriolar narrowing was similar among persons with and without hypertension.

The study is published in the April issue of Stroke.