“HISTOMORPHOLOGY EVALUATION OF MACULAR THICKNESS AS AN INDICATOR OF RETINAL MICROVASCULAR DAMAGE IN SYSTEMIC HYPERTENSION”
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Keywords
Systemic hypertension, macular thickness, retinal microvasculature, optical coherence tomography, hypertensive retinopathy, retinal biomarkers
Abstract
Background: Microvascular damage is another significant effect of systemic hypertension, and the retina is a delicate piece of evidence of changes in the systemic vasculature. The retinal alterations should be observed early enough to avoid complications.
Objective: The objective was to assess the use of optical coherence tomography in measuring the degree of retinal microvascular injury in patients with systemic hypertension by measuring their macular thickness as a histomorphological parameter.
Methods: The cross-sectional study was done at the Al Ibrahim Eye Hospital between December 2023 and June 2024. The sample size was 120, 60 hypertensive patients and 60 healthy controls of the same age. A thorough ophthalmic examination and a macular thickness evaluation were done on all the people with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. The values of the macular thickness were measured both at the center and the quadrant. The SPSS version 26 and the independent t-tests and Pearson correlation analysis were employed to carry out the statistical analysis.
Results: Hypertensive patients showed a significantly reduced central macular thickness (238.4 ± 18.6 µm) compared to controls (252.7 0.0016.9 µm). The difference between the average macular thickness was also significant with the hypertensive group favoring. Quadrant-wise results indicated that the superior and temporal areas were significantly thin. Systolic blood pressure and macular thickness were found to have a negative correlation (r = -0.47, p<0.01), and so was the disease duration and retinal thickness (r = -0.52, p<0.001). It should be noted that despite the absence of clinical retinopathy, the thinning of the macula was noted.
Conclusion: Macular thickness is an accurate and delicate biomarker that can be used to identify early retinal microvascular damage in systemic hypertension. Diagnosis and clinical management can be enhanced with the help of optical coherence tomography.
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Dr Syed Saifullah Shah
Consultant Ophthalmologist, Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Isra Postgraduate Institute Ophthalmology, Karachi
Dr Sarah Sughra
Assistant Professor Sir Syed College of Medical Science for Girls
Dr Fayaz Ahmed Soomro
Consultant Ophthalmologist, Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Isra Postgraduate Institute Ophthalmology, Karachi
Dr Abdul Qadeem Soomro
Consultant Ophthalmologist, Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Isra Postgraduate Institute Ophthalmology, Karachi
Dr Asif Qazi
Consultant Ophthalmologist, Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Isra Postgraduate Institute Ophthalmology, Karachi
Dr Ali Mujtaba Shah
Consultant Ophthalmologist, Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Isra Postgraduate Institute Ophthalmology, Karachi
Dr Hina Khan
Professor Department of Anatomy, Al Tibri Medical College and Hospital
