title: Retinal vascular calibers and risk of late-life depression: The Rotterdam Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the "vascular depression" hypothesis, the authors investigated whether smaller retinal arteriolar or larger venular calibers, which are markers of cerebral microvascular disease, were associated with incident late-life depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors included 3,605 participants (age > or =55 years) from the population-based Rotterdam Study with no depression at baseline (1993-1995) and fundus photographs gradable for retinal vascular caliber measurements. The authors identified persons with incident depressive symptoms and syndromes using psychiatric interviews during follow-up visits and continuous monitoring. The follow-up was complete until October 2005.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After a mean follow-up of 9.0 years, 555 participants developed incident depression, including 312 with depressive syndrome. Neither smaller arteriolar (age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio: 1.01; 95% confidence interval: 0.93-1.10), nor larger venular calibers (hazard ratio: 1.02; 95% confidence interval: 0.94-1.12) were associated with incident depressive syndromes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data showed no evidence of an association between retinal vascular calibers and incident late-life depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: M Kamran
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Ikram
authors.forename: Hendrika J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Luijendijk
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofman
authors.forename: Paulus T V M
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: Monique M B
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Breteler
authors.forename: Johannes R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Vingerling
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tiemeier
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012171:Retinal Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors