Retinal Vessel Diameters and Risk of Hypertension

Generalized retinal arteriolar narrowing is an important sign of systemic hypertension, and a lower arteriolar:venular diameter ratio predicts the risk of hypertension. We investigated whether this association was based on arteriolar or venular diameters or both. This study was based on the prospective population-based Rotterdam Study (1990¿1993) and included 1900 participants ( 55 years of age) of whom 739 persons had normal blood pressure (systolic