Retinal Microvascular Network and Coronary Revascularization Surgery at the Dijon University Hospital

When coronary artery disease cannot be treated with medication, revascularization surgery can be performed. Although there have been many advances in recent years, this surgery is still associated with a high incidence of cardiovascular complications.

These complications are more frequent in patients with microscopic vessel damage. In clinical practice, microvascular status is difficult to characterize. Several models have been proposed, but they remain imprecise and are difficult to reproduce.

However, the study of the retinal microvascular network has recently emerged as a promising model. It is simple, quick and non-invasive thanks to the use of photographs or CT scans of the fundus (by optical coherence tomography angiography = OCT-A). Thus, the retinal vasculature is very often presented as an in vivo access that provides a window into systemic peripheral vasculature.

Despite the systematic assessment of cardiovascular risk by the usual risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, sex, etc.), risk stratification remains imperfect in coronary revascularization surgery and remains associated with a high incidence of complications, the most frequent being acute kidney injury (AKI).

Preoperative screening for retinal microvascular data could improve surgical risk stratification and better predict the potential occurrence of severe renal complications. Patient management could thus tailored to avoid such complications.

The main objective of the study is to investigate, in patients scheduled for coronary revascularization surgery with extracorporeal circulation, the discriminative capacity of retinal vascular density to predict the occurrence of AKI within 7 days after surgery.