Researchers did this study to investigate the relationship between retinal vessel density and renal function in patients with DM using non-invasive OCTA.
This prospective cross-sectional study recruited ocular-treatment-naïve patients. The researchers obtained the retinal vessel density of the superficial capillary plexus in the macula by using swept-source OCTA imaging. Researchers used the Xiangya equation to calculate the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).
A total of 874 patients with DM, with a mean age of 64.8±7.1 years, were included in the final analysis. The vessel density was significantly lower in patients with CKD than in non-CKD patients in a dose-response pattern, with a parafoveal vessel density of 49.1%±2.1% in non-CKD, 48.4%±1.9% in mild CKD, and 47.2%±1.7% in MS-CKD. The analysis related the sparser retinal capillaries to lower eGFR and higher microalbuminuria. The research independently associated the eGRF with parafoveal vessel density even after adjusting for other factors.
The study concluded that retinal vessel density decreased with renal function impairment, underlining the potential value of OCTA to detect early microvascular damage in the kidney in patients with diabetes.
Reference: https://bjo.bmj.com/content/104/12/1768
