Serum uric acid levels are associated with macula microvasculature changes in hypertensive white matter hyperintensity patients

Abstract

Purpose: to characterize the macula microvasculature using fractal dimension (FD) in hypertensive white matter hyperintensity (WMH) participants and explore the association between the microvascular changes and serum uric acid levels Methods: Thirty-eight WMH participants who were dementia and stroke-free and 37 healthy controls were enrolled. Optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) was used to image the superficial vascular complex (SVC), deep vascular complex (DVC,), and inner vascular complex (IVC) in a 2.5-mm diameter concentric circle (excluding the foveal avascular zone, FAZ). A commercial algorithm was used to quantify the complexity and density of the three capillary layers by fractal analysis. Results: WMH participants showed significantly lower FD value in the SVC (P = 0.002), DVC (P < 0.001) and IVC (P = 0.012) macula microvasculature compared with control group. After adjusting for risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, age and gender) SVC (P = 0.035) and IVC (P = 0.030) significantly correlated with serum uric acid. Conclusions: Serum uric acid levels are associated with the microvascular changes in WMH. Fractal dimension based on OCTA imaging could help in the quantitative characterization of the macula microvasculature changes in WMH and may be a potential screening tool to detect serum uric acid level changes.