UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Retinal and Cerebral Microvasculopathy: Relationships and Their Genetic Contributions

van de Kreeke, JA; Nguyen, HT; Konijnenberg, E; Tomassen, J; den Braber, A; Ten Kate, M; Sudre, CH; ... Visser, PJ; + view all (2018) Retinal and Cerebral Microvasculopathy: Relationships and Their Genetic Contributions. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science , 59 (12) pp. 5025-5031. 10.1167/iovs.18-25341. Green open access

[thumbnail of i1552-5783-59-12-5025.pdf]
Preview
Text
i1552-5783-59-12-5025.pdf - Published Version

Download (342kB) | Preview

Abstract

PURPOSE: Retinal microvasculopathy may reflect small vessel disease in the brain. Here we test the relationships between retinal vascular parameters and small vessel disease, the influence of cardiovascular risk factors on these relationships, and their common genetic background in a monozygotic twin cohort. METHODS: We selected 134 cognitively healthy individuals (67 monozygotic twin pairs) aged ‡60 years from the Netherlands Twin Register for the EMIF-AD PreclinAD study. We measured seven retinal vascular parameters averaged over both eyes using fundus images analyzed with Singapore I Vessel Assessment. Small vessel disease was assessed on MRI by a volumetric measurement of periventricular and deep white matter hyperintensities. We calculated associations between RVPs and WMH, estimated intratwin pair correlations, and performed twin-specific analyses on relationships of interest. RESULTS: Deep white matter hyperintensities volume was positively associated with retinal tortuosity in veins (P ¼ 0.004) and fractal dimension in arteries (P ¼ 0.001) and veins (P ¼ 0.032), periventricular white matter hyperintensities volume was positively associated with retinal venous width (P ¼ 0.028). Intratwin pair correlations were moderate to high for all small vessel disease/retinal vascular parameter variables (r ¼ 0.49–0.87, P < 0.001). Crosstwin cross-trait analyses showed that retinal venous tortuosity of twin 1 could predict deep white matter hyperintensities volume of the co-twin (r ¼ 0.23, P ¼ 0.030). Within twin-pair differences for retinal venous tortuosity were associated with within twin-pair differences in deep white matter hyperintensities volume (r ¼ 0.39, P ¼ 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Retinal arterial fractal dimension and venous tortuosity have associations with deep white matter hyperintensities volume. Twin-specific analyses suggest that retinal venous tortuosity and deep white matter hyperintensities volume have a common etiology driven by both shared genetic factors and unique environmental factors, supporting the robustness of this relationship.

Type: Article
Title: Retinal and Cerebral Microvasculopathy: Relationships and Their Genetic Contributions
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1167/iovs.18-25341
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/iovs.18-25341
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2018 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0).
Keywords: retinal vascular parameters, white matter hyperintensities, biomarker, small vessel disease, microvasculature
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Brain Repair and Rehabilitation
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine > MRC Unit for Lifelong Hlth and Ageing
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10059611
Downloads since deposit
129Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item