TY - JOUR
T1 - Age-related changes of the retinal microvasculature
AU - Orlov, Nikita V.
AU - Coletta, Cristopher
AU - van Asten, Freekje
AU - Qian, Yong
AU - Ding, Jun
AU - AlGhatrif, Majd
AU - Lakatta, Edward
AU - Chew, Emily
AU - Wong, Wai
AU - Swaroop, Anand
AU - Fiorillo, Edoardo
AU - Delitala, Alessandro
AU - Marongiu, Michele
AU - Goldberg, Ilya G.
AU - Schlessinger, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
PY - 2019/5
Y1 - 2019/5
N2 - Purpose Blood vessels of the retina provide an easily-accessible, representative window into the condition of microvasculature. We investigated how retinal vessel structure captured in fundus photographs changes with age, and how this may reflect features related to patient health, including blood pressure. Results We used two approaches. In the first approach, we segmented the retinal vasculature from fundus photographs and then we correlated 25 parameterized aspects ("traits")—comprising 15 measures of tortuosity, 7 fractal ranges of self-similarity, and 3 measures of junction numbers—with participant age and blood pressure. In the second approach, we examined entire fundus photographs with a set of algorithmic CHARM features. We studied 2,280 Sardinians, ages 20–28, and an U.S. based population from the AREDS study in 1,178 participants, ages 59–84. Three traits (relating to tortuosity, vessel bifurcation number, and vessel endpoint number) showed significant changes with age in both cohorts, and one additional trait (relating to fractal number) showed a correlation in the Sardinian cohort only. When using second approach, we found significant correlations of particular CHARM features with age and blood pressure, which were stronger than those detected when using parameterized traits, reflecting a greater signal from the entire photographs than was captured in the segmented microvasculature. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that automated quantitative image analysis of fundus images can reveal general measures of patient health status.
AB - Purpose Blood vessels of the retina provide an easily-accessible, representative window into the condition of microvasculature. We investigated how retinal vessel structure captured in fundus photographs changes with age, and how this may reflect features related to patient health, including blood pressure. Results We used two approaches. In the first approach, we segmented the retinal vasculature from fundus photographs and then we correlated 25 parameterized aspects ("traits")—comprising 15 measures of tortuosity, 7 fractal ranges of self-similarity, and 3 measures of junction numbers—with participant age and blood pressure. In the second approach, we examined entire fundus photographs with a set of algorithmic CHARM features. We studied 2,280 Sardinians, ages 20–28, and an U.S. based population from the AREDS study in 1,178 participants, ages 59–84. Three traits (relating to tortuosity, vessel bifurcation number, and vessel endpoint number) showed significant changes with age in both cohorts, and one additional trait (relating to fractal number) showed a correlation in the Sardinian cohort only. When using second approach, we found significant correlations of particular CHARM features with age and blood pressure, which were stronger than those detected when using parameterized traits, reflecting a greater signal from the entire photographs than was captured in the segmented microvasculature. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that automated quantitative image analysis of fundus images can reveal general measures of patient health status.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0215916
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0215916
M3 - Article
C2 - 31048908
AN - SCOPUS:85065582761
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 5
M1 - e0215916
ER -