| Title: | Neuroretinal and Photoreceptor Layer Thickness Reduction Associates With Impaired Cardiovascular Health: The UK Biobank Study |
| Journal: | Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science |
| Published: | 8 Jan 2026 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41533913/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.67.1.19 |
| URL: | https://iovs.arvojournals.org/arvo/content_public/journal/iovs/938741/i1552-5783-67-1-19_1767792934.97793.pdf |
Publication 18717
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Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate layer-specific relationships between retinal architecture, measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT), and cardiovascular health (CVH).</p>
Methods: We analyzed data from 26,230 UK Biobank participants with high-quality spectral-domain OCT images and complete CVH assessments. CVH was quantified using the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score. Multivariable linear regression models assessed associations between thickness of eight retinal layers and CVH. The diagnostic performance of retinal layer thickness for identifying poor CVH (LE8 score <50) was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).</p>
Results: Each 5 µm increase in ganglion cell complex (β = 0.141; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.068-0.213), retinal nerve fiber layer (β = 0.225; 95% CI, 0.093-0.357), ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (β = 0.175; 95% CI, 0.062-0.288), photoreceptor segments (PS; β = 0.753; 95% CI, 0.590-0.917), and macular thickness (β = 0.133; 95% CI, 0.086-0.179) was independently associated with better CVH (all P ≤ 0.002). The addition of retinal layers to a baseline model of age and sex slightly improved the diagnostic performance for poor CVH. Among individual retinal layers, the PS showed the strongest incremental discriminative ability (AUC = 0.632; 95% CI, 0.608-0.657). The highest overall performance was achieved by the model incorporating the total retinal thickness in the macular region (AUC = 0.662; 95% CI, 0.638-0.687).</p>
Conclusions: Reduced thickness in both neuroretinal layers and PS demonstrates a significant but weak association with impaired CVH. Although these findings reinforce a structural connection between retinal integrity and cardiovascular status, the modest discriminative performance indicates that retinal structure alone may have limited value for diagnostics or screening.</p>
15 Keywords
- Aged
- Biological Specimen Banks
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Female
- Humans
- Male
- Middle Aged
- Nerve Fibers
- Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate
- ROC Curve
- Retinal Ganglion Cells
- Tomography, Optical Coherence
- UK Biobank
- United Kingdom
15 Authors
- Yu Peng
- Yuzhou Zhang
- Ka Wai Kam
- Mary Ho
- Simon Sezto
- Sunny Au
- Charlene C. Yim
- Xiujuan Zhang
- Mandy P. H. Ng
- Patrick Ip
- Alvin Young
- Chi Pui Pang
- Clement C. Tham
- Li Jia Chen
- Jason C. Yam
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 91320 | Effect of diet and diet-gene on ocular diseases |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health