Is retinal arteriolar-venular ratio associated with cardiac and extracardiac organ damage in essential hypertension?
AIM: Whether retinal microvascular disease is associated with markers of cardiac and extracardiac organ damage in human hypertension is still unclear. We examined the relationship between retinal arteriolar-venular ratio (AVR) and left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid atherosclerosis and microalbuminuria in essential hypertension. METHODS: A total of 386 untreated and treated uncomplicated essential hypertensive individuals (mean age 56 +/- 13 years) consecutively attending our hospital outpatient hypertension clinic were considered for the analysis. All individuals underwent extensive clinical and laboratory investigations, including retinal AVR evaluation by a fully automated computer-assisted method, echocardiography and carotid ultrasonography. RESULTS: Mean retinal AVR was 0.790 +/- 0.079 (range 0.530-0.990). In univariate analyses, AVR showed a significant inverse association with left ventricular mass index (r = -0.15, P = 0.002) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) (r = -0.