Association between Retinal Vascular Geometric Changes and Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Huiqun Wu, Chendong Wang, Cong Chen, Xiaotao Xu, Yi Zhu, Aimin Sang, Kui Jiang, Jiancheng Dong
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Previous studies have explored the association between retinal vascular changes and cognitive impairment. The retinal vasculature shares some characteristics with the cerebral vasculature, and quantitative changes in it could indicate cognitive impairment. Hence, a comprehensive meta-analysis was performed to clarify the potential relationship between retinal vascular geometric changes and cognitive impairment. METHODS: Relevant databases were scrupulously and systematically searched for retinal vascular geometric changes including caliber, tortuosity, and fractal dimension (FD), and for cognitive impairment. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of included studies. RevMan was used to perform the meta-analysis and detect publication bias. Sensitivity analyses were also performed. RESULTS: >0.05). However, the retinal arteriolar FD (mean difference: -0.03, 95% CI: -0.05, -0.01) and venular FD (mean difference: -0.03, 95% CI: -0.05, -0.02) were associated with cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: A smaller retinal microvascular FD might be associated with cognitive impairment. Further large-sample and well-controlled original studies are required to confirm the present findings.