Cheung N, et al. - An inquiry was set up with regard to the prevalence of and risk factors for retinal emboli in a large, contemporary, multiethnic Asian cohort. Retinal emboli was a common occurrence in Indian persons, based on 88 individuals among 9978 participants of 3 major Asian ethnic populations. It correlated with conventional cardiovascular risk factors, stroke, and chronic kidney disease. Hence, its presence could indicate vascular embolic event and damage not only in the brain but also in the kidneys. On affirmation, these data would recommend that individuals with retinal emboli possibly required both general cardiovascular and renal assessment.

Methods

• The design of this trial was a population-based cross-sectional study.
• It was carried out from 2004 to 2011 and enrolled 10033 Chinese, Malay, and Indian persons aged 40 to 80 years residing in the general communities of Singapore.
• The research took place from November 2016 to February 2017.
• As a part of the interventions, retinal emboli were identified from retinal photographs yielded from both eyes of the enrollees based on a standardized protocol.
• Age-standardized prevalence of retinal emboli was computed through the 2010 Singapore adult population.
• Risk factors were gauged via comprehensive systemic and ophthalmic examinations, interviews, and laboratory investigations.
• The main measures comprised of the retinal emboli.

Results

• Among the 10033 participants, 9978 (99.5%) reported gradable retinal photographs.
• 5057 (50.7%) candidates were female, and 3375 (33.8%) were Indian.
• 88 subjects (0.9%) with retinal emboli were detected.
The overall person-specific, age-standardized prevalence of retinal emboli was 0.75% (95% CI, 0.60-0.95).
• The highest prevalence was disclosed in the Indian cohort (0.98%), followed by the Chinese (0.73%) and Malay (0.44%) cohorts (P = .03).
• The factors related to prevalent retinal emboli included older age (per 5-year increase; odds ratio [OR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05-1.41), Indian ethnicity (compared with Malay ethnicity; OR, 3.58; 95% CI, 1.95-6.60), hypertension (OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.03-3.70), chronic kidney disease (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.15-3.64), creatinine level (per SD increase; OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.05-1.21), glomerular filtration rate (per SD increase; OR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.51-0.86), and history of stroke (OR, 3.45; 95% CI, 1.70-6.99), in the multivariable-adjusted analysis.