Relationship Between Echocardiography and Arterial Stiffness Parameters and Chorodial Thickness in Healthy Subjects

ABSTR A C T BACKGROUND: Choroid is one of the most vascularized tissues of the body. Enhanced depth imaging optical coher-ence tomography (EDI-OCT) is the diagnostic method for choroid imaging. An increase in arterial stiffness, one of the important determinants of vascular aging, is a prognostic predictor of cardiovascular mortality. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CFPWV) is the gold standard method for the detection of arterial stiffness and has a high predictive value for undesirable cardiovascular events. The aim of our study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between choroidal thickness and echocardiographic findings, CFPWV, arterial stiffness, aortic distensibility and other basic pa-rameters in healthy middle-aged subjects. METHODS: The study included 80 healthy individuals aged 30-60 years. Firstly, echocardiographic and arterial stiffness levels of volunteers were evaluated, and choroidal thickness was determined by EDI-OCT. The relationship between choroidal thickness and other parameters was evaluated by Pearson correlation test. RESULTS: A total of 80 healthy volunteers (35 females, 43%) were included in the study. The mean age was 42.40-17.68 years (range, 31-60 years). It was found that there were a negative correlation between choroid and age (r=-0.80, P<0.01), left ventricular deceleration time (r=-0.72, P<0.01), isovolumic relaxation time (r=-0.76, P<0.01), ee (r =-0.68, P<0.01), annular late diastolic velocity (r=-0.25, P<0.05), CFPWV (r=-0.70, P<0.01) and aortic stiffness (r=-0.76, P<0.01). There was a significant positive correlation between choroid and aortic distensibility (r=0.81, P<0.01). There was no difference between the genders in terms of choroidal thickness (t[77]=0.47, P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Correlation between advanced age, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, increased arterial stiffness parameters, decreased aortic distensibility and choroidal thinning were observed.