Impact of cardiometabolic factors on interocular asymmetry of the retinal and choroidal microvasculature: An optical coherence tomography angiography study

Abstract: PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of different cardiometabolic factors with the asymmetry index (AI) of quantitative parameters measured with swept-source-optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective study. The study enrolled 200 eyes of 100 patients. Demographic and clinical characteristics were obtained. AI of OCTA quantitative parameters (vessel density [VD] and foveal avascular zone [FAZ] area of superficial capillary plexus [SCP], deep capillary plexus [DCP], total capillary plexus (TCP), and choriocapillaris) in 4.5 mm × 4.5 mm cube were recorded in each patient. RESULTS: Dyslipidemia (DL) was associated with AI of SCP VD ( P = 0.016). Moreover, males and nondiabetic patients had a higher AI of SCP VD ( P = 0.010 and P < 0.001). Regarding to AI of FAZ area, diabetes mellitus (DM) was associated with AI of FAZ area of SCP and DCP ( P < 0.042 and P = 0.022), and smoking status was associated with AI of TCP FAZ area ( P = 0.012). In addition, correlation analysis revealed a weak negative correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure (dBP) and AI of TCP VD ( P = 0.032 and 0.026) and between dBP and AI of DCP FAZ area and TCP FAZ area ( P = 0.034 and 0.013). Finally, a weak positive correlation was found between low-density lipoprotein and AI of SCP FAZ area ( P = 0.034). CONCLUSION: In an era without built-in normative data, we demonstrated that cardiometabolic conditions (DM, hypertension, and DL) are associated with interocular asymmetry of SCP perfusion and FAZ area of retinal capillary plexus.