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. 2022 Jun 1;90(2):170-174.
doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000002925.

Brief Report: Retinal Microvasculature and Immune Restoration Among South Eastern Asian Patients With HIV/AIDS Over a 9-Month Antiretroviral Therapy

Ling-Jun Li  1   2 , Petrina Tan  2 , Owen Hee  3 , Rupesh Agrawal  3 , Tock-Han Lim  2   3 , Tien-Yin Wong  2 , Stephen C Teoh  3   4
Affiliations

Brief Report: Retinal Microvasculature and Immune Restoration Among South Eastern Asian Patients With HIV/AIDS Over a 9-Month Antiretroviral Therapy

Ling-Jun Li et al. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. .

Abstract

Background: Longitudinal evidence on retinal microvasculature and subsequent systemic inflammatory alteration is lacking. We investigated the association between retinal microvasculature and immune response among patients with HIV/AIDS over a 9-month antiretroviral therapy.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study on patients with HIV/AIDS at Singapore Communicable Disease Centre since June 2011. We recruited all eligible patients and then reviewed them every 3 months over a 9-month follow-up, including performing blood tests (CD4+/CD8+ T-cell counts and HIV viral load), blood pressure, anthropometry measurements, and retinal photography at each visit. We assessed retinal vascular indexes using a semiautomated computer-based program. Finally, we applied a linear mixed model to analyze associations between baseline retinal vascular indexes and 9-month changes of CD4+/CD8+ T-cell counts and HIV viral load throughout study observation, after adjusting for major confounders.

Results: We found that narrower arteriolar caliber (per 10 μm decrease), wider venular caliber (per 10 μm increase), and larger arteriolar branching angle (per 10° increase) in the retina assessed at baseline were significantly associated with 9-month reductions in CD4+ T-cell count by 52.97 cells/μL (P = 0.006), 33.55 cells/μL (P = 0.01), and 39.09 cells/μL (P = 0.008), accordingly.

Conclusion: Patients with HIV/AIDS with a suboptimal retinal microvascular morphology tended to fail immune restoration undertaking a 9-month antiretroviral therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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