Association of renal function with retinal vessel density in patients with type 2 diabetes by using swept-source optical coherence tomographic angiography

Aims To investigate the relationship between retinal vessel density and renal function in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) using non-invasive optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA). Methods This prospective cross-sectional study recruited ocular-treatment-naive patients with DM registered in the community of Guangzhou, China. The retinal vessel density of the superficial capillary plexus in the macula was obtained by using swept-source OCTA imaging. The Xiangya equation was used to calculate the estimated glomerular filtrate rate (eGFR). Participants were divided into the following groups by eGFR: no chronic kidney disease (non-CKD), mild CKD and moderate-to-severe CKD (MS-CKD). Results A total of 874 patients with DM (874 eyes), with a mean age of 64.8±7.1 years, were included in the final analysis. The vessel density was significantly lower in patients with CKD than in non-CKD patients in a dose–response pattern, with a parafoveal vessel density of 49.1%±2.1% in non-CKD, 48.4%±1.9% in mild CKD and 47.2%±1.7% in MS-CKD (p Conclusion Retinal vessel density decreased with renal function impairment, underlining the potential value of OCTA to detect early microvascular damage in the kidney in patients with diabetes.