LAUSR

F or several decades, fundoscopy was one of the most reliable clinical tools for assessing the vascular impact of major cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension. However, in most European countries, this examination is no longer part of medical routine because of the subjectivity of the evaluation and the fact that other methodological approaches have since been developed such as carotid echography, aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and so forth, providing more accurate information on structural and functional vascular alterations. Interestingly, in these last years, and owing to technological advances, several devices have been proposed to measure retinal vessel calibre with accuracy and in a noninvasive manner. Using these methods, several cohort studies have shown that retinal artery narrowing (RAN) is a marker of microvascular dysfunction and is associated with chronic hypertension [1–3] and arterial stiffness [4]. In addition, narrowing of the retinal vessel lumen has been associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular events [5] independently of blood pressure levels [6]. The study by Kawashima-Kumagai et al. [7] with RAN exhibit, over a period of 5 years, a more pronounced increase in aortic pulse wave velocity. Compared with previous published reports on this topic, this study presents two major interests: