Recent study results highlight the association between an individual's cardiovascular risk score and their odds of developing certain eye diseases.
UCLA researchers examined health records from over thirty-five thousand adults between the ages of 40 and 79 who had taken part in the All of Us Research program.
Researchers assigned a Pooled Cohort Equations (PCE) cardiovascular risk score for each person based on information regarding cholesterol levels, blood pressure, smoking status and diabetes.
Four different risk categories were created and individuals were assigned to one of the categories. The categories were low, borderline, intermediate and high. Researchers then followed who ended up with eye conditions.
Those in the high risk cardiovascular group were 6.9 times the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration and 5.9 times the risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. The high risk group also was 2.3 times more likely to develop glaucoma than those in the low-risk group. Increased risk for hypertensive retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion was also found in the high risk group.
Researchers believe that a PCE score could assist doctors in identifying patients who would gain from early ophthalmologic examination and hopefully develop a plan to prevent the onset of such disease.
