To investigate choroidal thickness changes in patients with systemic arterial hypertension

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE: To investigate choroidal thickness changes in patients with systemic arterial hypertension. METHODS: The study included 50 patients (50 eyes) with newly diagnosed essential hypertension as study group and 50 healthy subjects (50 eyes) as control group. Choroidal thickness was measured with EDI (Enhanced depth imaging) mode of Cirrus HD-OCT (Cirrus, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA). Choroidal thickness was obtained at the subfovea (SFCT), 1500 μm nasal to the fovea (N1500) and 1500 μm temporal to the fovea (T1500). Hypertensive patients were graded according to the European Society of Cardiology hypertension grading system. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 61.04 ± 7.69 (40 – 81) with 65% woman and 35% men. There were no significant differences in terms of age and sex distribution between the two groups (respectively, p=0.365 , p= 0,295). All choroidal thickness measurements (SFCT, N1500, T1500) were significantly lower in hypertensive subjects compared to the control group (p=0.000 for all quadrants). Choroidal thickness measurements of patients with grade 2 hypertension were significantly lower than patients with grade 1 hypertension (SFCT p=0,005, T1500 p=0,021, N1500 p=0,032). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, significant thinning was detected in choroidal thickness in hypertensive patients compared to healthy subjects. It is observed that the impact increases with the severity of hypertension. Arteriolar sclerosis and vascular contraction caused by choroidal high intravascular pressure may be causes of thinner choroid in hypertensive patients. Key words: choroid, retina, optical coherence tomography, choroidal thickness, systemic hypertension