Original Article Retinal Vessel Diameters and Risk of Impaired Fasting Glucose or Diabetes The Rotterdam Study

The association between a smaller retinal arteriolar-to-venular ratio (AVR) and incident diabetes may be due to arteriolar narrowing, venular dilatation, or both. We inves-tigated associations between baseline vessel diameters and incident impaired fasting glucose or diabetes in a popula-tion-based cohort (aged>55 years). Baseline retinal vessel diameters (1990–1993) were measured on digitized images of 2,309 subjects with a normal glucose tolerance test (postload glucose <7.8 mmol/l). At follow-up (1997–1999), impaired fasting glucose was defined as 6.1–7.0 mmol/l and diabetes as>7.0 mmol/l and/or antidiabetic medication use. Odds ratios (ORs) per SD increase in venular diame-ters were 1.13 (95 % CI 1.00–1.29) for impaired fasting glucose and 1.09 (0.90–1.33) for diabetes. ORs per SD decrease in arteriolar diameters were 1.12 (0.98–1.27) an