Heart 2009;95:348-349
EDITORIALS
The eye: window to the soul or a mirror of systemic health?
1 Division of Genetics and Epidemiology, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK
2 National Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK
3 Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK
Dr P J Foster, Division of Genetics and Epidemiology, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, 11-43 Bath Street, London EC1V 9EL, UK; p.foster@ucl.ac.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
It has been said that there is no systemic disease which does not have a sign identifiable on ophthalmic examination. For many doctors, retinopathy—microaneurysms, haemorrhages, "hard" lipid exudates, microinfarcts of the retinal nerve fibre layer (cotton wool spots)—is synonymous with diabetes. A clinically distinct form of retinopathy is also recognised in hypertension, although traditionally, abnormalities of arteriovenous crossing architecture are the sine qua non feature of hypertensive retinopathy, with haemorrhagic and exudative changes only following later. However, population-based research has shown that retinopathy is a relatively common finding in older people without diabetes.1
In this edition of the journal, Liew and colleagues report increased coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality associated with retinopathy (see article on page 391).2 Retinopathy was present in 29% (57/199) of those with diabetes and 10% (268/2768) of those without diabetes. The presence of retinopathy in people without diabetes increased the risk of CHD death
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Heart 2009 95: 391-394.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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