Prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy in hypertensive patients

Hypertension manifests in the eyes as retinopathy, choroidopathy and optic neuropathy of which retinopathy can be used as a predictor for systemic morbidities and mortalities. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of retinopathy in hypertensive patients and determine the correlation of retinopathy with parameters like age, sex, duration of hypertension, severity of hypertension and control of hypertension. This was a cross-sectional, retrospective study done in patients attending our hospital between January to March 2019 comprising of 200 patients. The grading of retinopathy was done using Keith-Wagner-Barker system. The presence of retinopathy was compared with parameters like age, sex and duration of hypertension. Statistical analysis was done using MS-Excel and Chi-square test. Among the 200 hypertensive patients (117 males, 83 females), 57 patients had retinopathy (28.5%) of which 35 were males and 22 were females. Among patients with retinopathy, 32 had Grade 1, 16 had Grade 2, 8 had Grade 3 and 1 had Grade 4 retinopathy. Based on the severity of hypertension, 8 out of 61 patients having mild hypertension, 25 out of 81 patients had moderate hypertension and 24 out of 58 patients having severe hypertension, had retinopathy. The prevalence of retinopathy was higher in patients with hypertension for 5 years or more (54.4%) than those with hypertension with less than 5 years (21.8%). Our study showed prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy to be 28.5%. Severity of hypertension and duration of hypertension > 5 years was found to have an association with hypertensive retinopathy.