Association between systemic arterial stiffness and age-related macular degeneration.
BACKGROUND
A number of epidemiological studies suggest that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cardiovascular disease share the same risk factors. Systemic arterial stiffness is a clear indicator of cardiovascular disease. We investigated whether there is an association between directly measured systemic arterial stiffness and the presence of AMD.


METHODS
We used a SphygmoCor 2000 system to noninvasively measure two indicators of the systemic arterial stiffness, the arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV) and the central aortic blood pressure waveform, from which the augmentation pressure is determined. We studied 50 patients with AMD (12 men, 38 women, aged 60 to 91 years, mean 77 years) and 11 age-matched control subjects (3 men, 8 women, aged 66 to 92 years, mean 75 years). All study subjects received a complete ophthalmic examination including digital fundus photography. All of the patients with AMD were classified as stage 3 or worse in at least one eye according to the AREDS system.


RESULTS
Pulse wave velocity was significantly higher in the patients with AMD (8.2+/-1.1 m/s, mean +/- SD) compared with controls (7.1+/-0.8 m/s, p=0.0025), indicating increased arterial stiffness. There was no significant difference in PWV in AMD patients with and without choroidal neovascularization. There was no association between PWV and the presence of hypertension in either the patients or the controls. The central aortic augmentation pressure was significantly higher in the AMD patients than in the controls (p=0.040), also indicating increased arterial stiffness.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with AMD have increased systemic arterial stiffness compared with age-matched controls. Treatments aimed at preventing or reversing systemic arterial stiffness may also be effective in preventing the onset or slowing the progression of AMD.
Sato
Eiichi
E
Schepens Retina Associates Foundation, 6th Floor, 1 Autumn Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Feke
Gilbert T
GT
Appelbaum
Ephraim Y
EY
Menke
Marcel N
MN
Trempe
Clement L
CL
McMeel
J Wallace
JW
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D017534:Radial Artery / Q000502:physiology; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012161:Retinal Artery / Q000503:physiopathology*