Effect of blood pressure variability on hypertensive retinopathy

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This study intends to investigate the correlation between blood pressure variability (BPV) levels and the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) to measure retinal microvasculature in hypertensive patients.

Methods

All individuals in the study had 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and bilateral OCT and OCTA exams, and only data from the right eye were analyzed statistically.

Results

The study included 170 individuals, with 60 in the control group. The experimental group was separated into two groups based on the average real variability (ARV) median, with 55 in the low ARV group and 55 in the high ARV group. The mean thicknesses of the Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer (RNFL), internal limiting membrane-retinal pigment epithelial cell layer (ILM-RPE), vessel density (VD), and perfusion density (PD) in the high-ARV group were substantially lower in the low-ARV and control groups (p＜0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that disease duration, age, and 24 h diastolic standard deviation all affected RNFL mean thickness (p＜0.05). VD and PD were influenced by disease duration, systolic-ARV, daytime systolic blood pressure, intraocular pressure(IOP), and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) (p＜0.05). And the change in VD was connected to best-corrected visual acuity.

Conclusion

Hypertensive retinopathy is related to BPV. In clinical practice, we can assess the degree of BPV and retinopathy in hypertensive patients to track the progression of hypertension-mediated organ damage (HMOD). Correction of BPV may help treat or postpone the progression of HOMD.

KEYWORDS:

• Blood pressure variability
• hypertensive retinopathy
• average real variability
• optical coherence tomography
• optical coherence tomography angiography

Acknowledgments

We thank the individuals for participating in this research. We would also like to thank Dr. Chaoran Lv, who is responsible for the collection and quality control of the ophthalmology data.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.