Relationship between blood pressure and retinal vascular diameters

Objective To analyze the relationship between blood pressure level and retinal vascular diameters. Methods Employees volunteered to undergo fundus color photography in physical examination were recruited. Exclusions included diabetics and image blurring or software recognition of vascular errors that cannot be measured. 3229 cases finally met the inclusion criteria. The correlation between blood pressure and retinal vascular equivalent was evaluated by Spearman correlation coefficient, and the correlations between mean arterial pressure（MAP）, pulse pressure, every 10 mm Hg change of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and retinal vascular equivalent were analyzed by multivariate linear regression. Results Of all 3229 subjects, average central retinal vein equivalent（CRAE） was（175.4±23.8）μm, and central retinal vein equivalent（CRVE） was（236.1±25.2）μm. Spearman correlation analysis showed that MAP, pulse pressure, systolic and diastolic pressure were negatively correlated with CRAE（r=-0.22,-0.15,-0.23 and-0.17, respectively, all P＜0. 01）, MAP, pulse pressure and systolic pressure were negatively correlated with CRVE（r=-0.07,-0.13 and-0.12, respectively）. In multivariate linear regression analysis, after adjusting for other confounding factors, every 10 mm Hg increasing of MAP, pulse pressure, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, CRAE decreased by 3.4,1.0,1.9 and 3.8 μm, respectively, with CRVE decreased by 1.9, 1.5, 1.4 and 1.7 μm, respectively. Conclusion The increase of MAP, pulse pressure, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure levels are correlated with the decrease of CRAE and CRVE.