Retinal arteriolar and venular phenotypes in a Flemish population: Reproducibility and correlates

Yan-Ping Liu; Tom Richart; Yu Jin; Harry A. Struijker-Boudierc; Jan A. Staessen

doi:10.1016/j.artres.2011.03.004

<Previous Article In Issue

Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2011, Pages 72 - 79

Retinal arteriolar and venular phenotypes in a Flemish population: Reproducibility and correlates

Authors

Yan-Ping Liu^a^{, d}, Tom Richart^a^{, b}^{, d}, Yu Jin^a, Harry A. Struijker-Boudierc^c, Jan A. Staessen^a^{, b}^{, *}

^aStudies Coordinating Centre, Division of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Rehabilitation, Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

^bDepartment of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

^cDepartment of Pharmacology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

^d

Contributed equally to this work.

^*Corresponding author. Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Peter Debyeplein 1, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 43 388 2374 (office)/+32 15 41 1747(home)/+32 47 632 4928(mobile); fax: +31 43 388 4128(office)/+32 15 41 4542(home). E-mail addresses: jan.staessen@med.kuleuven.be, ja.staessen@epid.unimaas.nl (J.A. Staessen).

Corresponding Author

Jan A. Staessen

Received 4 March 2011, Revised 28 March 2011, Accepted 29 March 2011, Available Online 22 April 2011.

DOI: 10.1016/j.artres.2011.03.004 How to use a DOI?
Keywords: Arterioles; Microcirculation; Population research; Reproducibility; Retina; Venules
Abstract: Background: To our knowledge, no previous study assessed the reproducibility of non-mydriatic imaging of retinal microvessels using state-of-the-art Bland and Altman statistics.

Methods: In 194 subjects randomly selected from a Flemish population, we post-processed retinal images (Canon Cr-DGi) using IVAN software to generate the retinal arteriole and venule equivalents (CRAE and CRVE) and the arteriole-to-venule ratio (AVR). We searched for significant (p ≤ 0.05) correlates of the retinal phenotypes, using stepwise multiple regression. To study intra- and inter-observer variability, 2 observers post-processed a random subset (n = 84) in duplicate. According to Bland and Altman’s approach, reproducibility was twice the standard deviation of the pairwise differences between duplicate measurements, expressed as a percentage of the average of all measurements.

Results: In 194 participants (age range, 18–79 years; 52.5% women), CRAE, CRVE, and AVR averaged (±SD) 175.3 ± 22.8 μm, 284.3 ± 20.5 μm, and 0.62 ± 0.10, respectively. CRAE increased with female sex (+8.4 μm) and current smoking (+9.1 μm) and decreased with age (−0.30 μm/year) and mean arterial pressure (−0.41 μm/mmHg). CRVE decreased with age (−0.42 μm/year). AVR increased with female sex (+0.03 units). The intra-observer reproducibility of CRAE, CRVE and AVR was 13.2%, 8.4% and 9.0% for observer 1 and 10.3%, 10.8% and 16.0% for observer 2. Inter-observer reproducibility amounted to 10.8%, 9.9% and 14.6%, respectively.

Conclusion: Our study further validates the non-mydriatic approach to phenotype retinal microvessels, because it showed acceptable intra- and inter-observer variability and because the correlates of these retinal phenotypes were consistent with those reported in the literature.
Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license.

Download article (PDF)
View full text (HTML)

<Previous Article In Issue

Journal: Artery Research
Volume-Issue: 5 - 2
Pages: 72 - 79
Publication Date: 2011/04/22
ISSN (Online): 1876-4401
ISSN (Print): 1872-9312
DOI: 10.1016/j.artres.2011.03.004 How to use a DOI?
Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license.

Cite this article

ris enw bib

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Yan-Ping Liu
AU  - Tom Richart
AU  - Yu Jin
AU  - Harry A. Struijker-Boudierc
AU  - Jan A. Staessen
PY  - 2011
DA  - 2011/04/22
TI  - Retinal arteriolar and venular phenotypes in a Flemish population: Reproducibility and correlates
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 72
EP  - 79
VL  - 5
IS  - 2
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2011.03.004
DO  - 10.1016/j.artres.2011.03.004
ID  - Liu2011
ER  -

download .riscopy to clipboard