Relationship beetween Retinal Vascular Changes with Blood Pressure and Heart Rate of Workers in a Tile and Ceramic Industries

Background: Various studies have shown that vascular changes in the retina can be a primary indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. CRAE, CRVE, and AVR are three important markers for determining retinal vascular changes. The aim of this study was to determine the changes in these three ocular markers and their relationship with blood pressure and heart rate. Method: In this cross—sectional analytical study, 96 workers from one of Yazd s tile and ceramic industries were studied. Fundus images were prepared from both eyes and then analyzed using ARIA software and related protocols. Data were analyzed by Kolmogorov—Smirnov test, and Mann—Whitney test and Correlation test was performed. Results: The mean and standard deviation of age and working experience of the population under study were 34.93(6.06) and 9.85(6.26) years,respectively. There was no statistically significant correlation between ocular parameters with blood pressure and heart rate (p—value > 0.05). The relationship of CRAE and CRVE with heart rate, although not statistically significant, was inverse.Conclusion: The results of this study showed no relationship between retinal vascular changes with changes in cardiovascular parameters such as blood pressure and heart rate among workers. Also, there was no significant difference between BMI and mean of three ocular parameters.

Keywords:

Retinal vascular , Blood pressure , Heart rate , Tile industry Introduction