Retinal arteriolar narrowing is associated with a 4-year risk of incident metabolic syndrome.

K Saito,Y Kawasaki,R Kawasaki,Y Nagao

doi:10.1038/nutd.2015.15

K Saito, Y Kawasaki + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/nutd.2015.15

Copy DOI

Abstract

We aimed to determine whether retinal microvascular changes in vessel calibers at baseline are associated with the future risk of developing the metabolic syndrome over 4 years in an adult cohort of Japanese individuals (n=90) who attended a health-screening program. Retinal vessel caliber was calculated as the central retinal artery equivalent and vein equivalent (CRAE) from non-mydriatic digital fundus images using semiautomated standardized software. There were 18 cases (20%) that developed metabolic syndrome over 4 years. Narrower arteriolar caliber at baseline was associated with an increased risk of incident metabolic syndrome over 4 years after adjusting for potential confounding risk factors including individual cardiovascular risk factors related to the metabolic syndrome (adjusted odds ratio per 1 s.d. change in CRAE: 2.92, 95% confidence interval 1.03, 8.24; P=0.043). Persons with wider venular caliber at baseline were more likely to have incident metabolic syndrome, but this was not statistically significant. Retinal vascular caliber might provide independent and useful information to predict incident metabolic syndrome in a health screening program.

Highlights

The metabolic syndrome, an accumulation of multiple cardiovascular risks, is widely recognized as an important target of intervention to prevent cardiovascular disease both in clinical practice and in health screening program in Japan.[1]
On the basis of the multiple logistic models, the area under the curve (AUC) of the basic model adjusting for age, gender, and five components of metabolic syndrome was 0.833
When retinal vessel caliber measurements were added onto this model, AUC improved to 0.863, this increase was not statistically significant (P = 0.142)

Summary

Introduction

The metabolic syndrome, an accumulation of multiple cardiovascular risks, is widely recognized as an important target of intervention to prevent cardiovascular disease both in clinical practice and in health screening program in Japan.[1] There is an emerging understanding that subtle retinal microvascular signs are associated with individual components of the metabolic syndrome. We showed that retinal microvascular changes are associated with the presence of the metabolic syndrome.[6]. This finding was in concordance with other epidemiologic studies reporting that various retinal vascular signs are associated with the presence of the metabolic syndrome[7,8] or obesity.[5]. A drawback of these studies was that they are all cross-sectional studies; no temporal association between baseline retinal vascular changes and incidence of the metabolic syndrome has been investigated in a longitudinal study design to date

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion