Assessment of arterial stiffness in patients with diabetic retinopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). A number of studies have investigated if patients with diabetic retinopathy present altered arterial stiffness compared to diabetic individuals without retinopathy.

OBJECTIVES

To compare arterial stiffness parameters in participants with diabetic retinopathy (DR) compared to participants with diabetes without retinopathy.

METHODS

Medline and Scopus were searched for published articles comparing indices of arterial stiffness in participants with DR and in diabetic participants without retinopathy. Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated for the comparisons. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO with registration ID: CRD42023482577.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis analyzed 3 arterial stiffness parameters brachial ankle PWV, carotid-femoral PWV and augmentation index (AI). 8 studies were included in the analysis of brachial ankle PWV, 4 in the analysis of carotid-femoral PWV and 4 in the analysis of the augmentation index. Brachial ankle PWV, carotid-femoral PWV and augmentation index were found to be increased in participants with DR compared to diabetic participants without DR (SMD = 0.59, 95 %CI = 0.40-0.79, P < 0.00001, I = 89 %, SMD = 0.86, 95 %CI = 0.55-1.18P < 0.00001, I = 91 % and SMD = 0.23, 95 %CI = 0.13-0.32, P < 0.00001, I = 0 %, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Diabetic participants with DR exhibit increased arterial stiffness compared to diabetic participants without DR.

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