Abstract 8656: Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Incident Cardiovascular Disease: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Abstract

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been linked to cardiovascular risk factors, but it is unclear whether or not AMD represents a marker for subsequent coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, including stroke. Aim: To determine whether AMD is a risk indicator for CHD/CVD events independent of other known risk factors in a multi-ethnic cohort. Methods: Retinal photographs from participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) without known CVD were evaluated for AMD. A Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to examine the association between AMD with subsequent CHD/CVD events, adjusting for clinical CVD risk factors. Additional analyses were conducted evaluating the strength of association between AMD and CHD/CVD stratifying by patient age and race. Results: Among 5951 participants with gradable retinal photographs, there were 895 participants with AMD. Over a mean follow-up period of 5.4 years, there was no statistically significant difference in incident CHD or CVD between the AMD and non-AMD groups (5.0% vs. 3.9%, p=0.13 for CHD and 6.6 vs. 5.5%, p=0.19 for CVD, respectively). In Cox regression models adjusting for CVD risk factors, there were no significant relationship between presence of any AMD and CHD/CVD events (HR=0.99, 95% CI 0.74-1.33, p=0.97). No significant association was found between subgroups of early AMD or late AMD and incident CHD/CVD events. Conclusions: In persons without a history of cardiovascular disease, AMD was not found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD events.