Paracentral Acute Middle Maculopathy and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease, Stroke, and Death: A Longitudinal Study.

Abstract

To evaluate the risk of acute cardiovascular events (CVE), including cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and all-cause mortality in patients with paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM). Retrospective cohort study. We studied 43 individuals with optical coherence tomography-documented PAMM attending Moorfields Eye Hospital between January 2014 and June 2021. We excluded patients with preceding (<2 years) major adverse cardiac events. We stratified patients by age (<50 and ≥50 years) and whether associated with retinal vascular diseases (RVD) or isolated (iPAMM). We assessed risk factors, clinical characteristics, and visual prognosis of the patients. CVE risk was estimated using Kaplan-Meier curves, the log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards regression. In young patients with iPAMM patients (n = 12), underlying predisposing factors included six (50%) sickle cell disease and five (41.6%) others, including breakthrough bleeding in pregnancy, migraine, genetic cardiomyopathy, amphetamine use; among those with PAMM + RVD (n = 12) one (9%) had a vascular disorder, and four (44.4%) oral contraceptive use. In the older group of 20 patients, 15 (75%) had at least one coronary risk factor. During a median follow-up of 14 months (range 12-54), older subjects with iPAMM had a higher risk of developing CVE than those with PAMM + RVD (P < .001). Notably, iPAMM displayed a significantly earlier peak in peri-PAMM CVE risk compared to PAMM + RVD (median: one month, range 1-40 months vs 36 months, range 12-54 months). Relative to those with PAMM + RVD, risk of CVE was significantly higher in patients with iPAMM, adjusted for age and sex (hazard ratio: 6.37, 95% confidence interval 1.68-24.14, P = .017). No young patients experienced adverse CVE. At baseline, older iPAMM patients mean best corrected visual acuity of 0.7 (0-1.8) logarithm of the minimum angle resolution, which improved significantly to 0.2 (0-1.30) logarithm of the minimum angle resolution at the latest visit (P = .033). Young individuals with iPAMM have a higher prevalence of predisposing factors compared to those presenting with combined PAMM + RVD. Older patients with iPAMM had a higher risk of CVE than those with PAMM + RVD, especially in the peri-onset timeframe. This suggests the need for a prompt cardiovascular assessment to rule out systemic etiologies and optimize cardiovascular risk factors, in addition to ongoing ophthalmology input.