TY - JOUR T1 - Subretinal drusenoid deposits are strongly associated with coexistent high-risk vascular diseases JF - BMJ Open Ophthalmology JO - BMJ Open Ophth DO - 10.1136/bmjophth-2022-001154 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - e001154 AU - Gerardo Ledesma-Gil AU - Oscar Otero-Marquez AU - Sharmina Alauddin AU - Yuehong Tong AU - Katy Tai AU - Harriet Lloyd AU - Micaela Koci AU - Maria Scolaro AU - Cinthi Pillai AU - Catherine Ye AU - Arun Govindaiah AU - Alauddin Bhuiyan AU - Mandip S Dhamoon AU - Avnish Deobhakta AU - Gareth Lema AU - Jagat Narula AU - Richard B Rosen AU - Lawrence A Yannuzzi AU - K Bailey Freund AU - Roland Theodore Smith Y1 - 2022/11/01 UR - http://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/7/1/e001154.abstract N2 - Background/aims Demonstrate that subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs) in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are linked to coexistent high-risk vascular diseases (HRVDs).Methods Cross-sectional study. Two hundred AMD subjects (aged 51–100 years; 121 women, 79 men) were recruited. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography, autofluorescence and near-infrared reflectance imaging, and lipid profiles were obtained. Subjects were assigned by health history questionnaires into those with or without HRVDs, defined as: cardiac valve defect (eg, aortic stenosis), myocardial defect (eg, myocardial infarction) and stroke/transient ischaemic attack. Masked readers assigned subjects into two groups: SDD (with or without drusen) and drusen (only). Univariate testing was performed by χ2 test. We built multivariate regression models to test relationships of coexistent HRVD to SDD status, lipid levels and other covariates.Results The prevalence of HRVD was 41.2% (40/97) and 6.8% (7/103) in the SDD and non-SDD groups, respectively (correlation of SDD with HRVD, p=9×10−9, OR 9.62, 95% CI 4.04 to 22.91). Multivariate regressions: only SDDs and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the first two HDL quartiles remained significant for HRVD (p=9.8×10−5, 0.021, respectively). Multivariate regression model: SDDs and an HDL in Q1 or Q2 identified the presence of HRVD with the accuracy of 78.5%, 95% CI 72.2% to 84.0%.Conclusions High-risk cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases were accurately identified in an AMD cohort from SDDs and HDL levels. The SDDs may be related to inadequate ocular perfusion resulting from the systemic vasculopathies. Further research with this paradigm is warranted and might reduce mortality and morbidity from vascular disease.Data are available on reasonable request. ER -