Coronary artery disease, its associations with ocular, genetic and blood lipid parameters

Background/objectives To investigate the associations between ophthalmic parameters, CYP4F2 (rs2108622) and ABCA1 (rs1883025) polymorphisms and coronary artery disease, considering the accessibility, non-invasive origin of retinal examination and its possible resemblance to coronary arteries. Subjects/methods Overall 165 participants divided into groups based on the coronary angiography results and clinical status: control group ( N = 73), MI group ( N = 63), 3VD (three vessel disease) ( N = 24). All the participants underwent total ophthalmic examination – optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography of the macula region were performed and evaluated. Total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride cholesterol (Tg-C) were tested. A standard manufacturer’s protocol for CYP4F2 (rs2108622) and ABCA1 (rs1883025) was used for genotyping with TaqMan probes. Results GCL+ layer was thicker in control group vs. 3VD group (74.00; 62.67–94.67 (median; min.-max.) vs. 71.06; 51.33–78.44, p = 0.037 ). T allele carriers under ABCA1 rs1883025 dominant model were shown to have ticker retina and smaller foveal avascular zone in superficial capillary plexus and smaller Tg-C concentration. ABCA1 rs1883025 was associated with retinal thickness (OR = 0.575, 95% CI 0.348–0.948, p = 0.030 ). Univariate logistic regression showed that ABCA1 rs1883025 CT genotype is associated with decreased risk for coronary artery disease development under overdominant genetic model (OR = 0.498, 95% CI 0.254–0.976; p = 0.042 ) and codominant genetic model (OR = 0.468, 95% CI 0.232–0.945, p = 0.034 ). Conclusions Results of this study confirmed that non-invasive methods such as OCT of eye might be used for identification of patients at risk of CAD.