Looking into the eye of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: an opportunity for better microvascular profiling of these complex patients

Anouk W. Vaes*, Martijn A. Spruit, Jan Theunis, Nandu Goswami, Lowie E. Vanfleteren, Frits M. E. Franssen, Emiel F. M. Wouters, Patrick De Boever

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal(Systematic) Review article peer-review

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex disease with many patients suffering from cardiovascular comorbidity. However, cardiovascular diseases remain often undiagnosed in COPD. Assessment of the retinal microvasculature can provide value in cardiovascular profiling of these patients. Retinal microvascular assessment carried out via a noninvasive eye exam represents an easy to use tool when examining patients with COPD. The purpose of this review was to provide an overview of studies assessing structural and functional changes in the retinal microvasculature of patients with COPD. Findings demonstrated that structural and functional microvascular changes were more common and severe in COPD patients as compared to non-COPD controls, although few retinal investigations have been performed in patients with COPD. As cardiovascular comorbidities are highly prevalent in COPD, we advocate more research to investigate the value of an eye exam for microvascular phenotyping of COPD patients.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)539-549
Number of pages11
JournalActa Ophthalmologica
Volume96
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2018

Keywords

  • cardiovascular disease
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  • colour Doppler ultrasonography
  • microvasculature
  • optical coherence tomography
  • retinal fundus imaging
  • retinal oximetry
  • OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY
  • RETINAL VASCULAR CALIBER
  • CARDIOVASCULAR RISK-FACTORS
  • COLOR DOPPLER EVALUATION
  • CORONARY HEART-DISEASE
  • CHOROIDAL THICKNESS
  • ATHEROSCLEROSIS RISK
  • SYSTEMIC ASSOCIATIONS
  • SEVERE HYPERTENSION
  • ARTERY-DISEASE

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