Risk of acute stroke in patients with retinal artery occlusion: a systematic review and meta-analysis

O. Al Jarallah

Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, AlKharj, Saudi Arabia. Othman.md@hotmail.com

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• Cardiology
• Ophthalmology

OBJECTIVE: In this systematic review and subsequent meta-analysis, we evaluated studies that showed a relationship between stroke and renal artery occlusion in order to determine the risk of acute stroke in patients with retinal artery occlusion (RAO).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The guiding principles of PRISMA were followed in this investigation. Using the keywords, 850 similar articles from the years 2004 to 2022 during the initial screening. The remaining research underwent additional screening, and 350 studies were excluded for not meeting our inclusion criteria. In the end, 12 papers were chosen for analysis.

RESULTS: The odd ratios were calculated using a random effect model. Then the I2 test was used to determine heterogeneity. To generate the conclusions, one sizable cohort of French studies was taken from the meta-analysis. Every study found a strong link. In half of the chosen trials, we found a marginal connection between stroke risk and retinal artery obstruction. The remaining research, however, reveals a considerable positive association between the two factors.

CONCLUSIONS: The meta-analysis demonstrated that people with RAO are significantly more likely to get an acute stroke than patients without RAO. In addition, patients with RAO are substantially more likely than those without RAO to develop an acute stroke following an occlusion episode, especially if they are under 75 years old. However, given that only a small number of the studies in our review did not show a clear correlation between the two, we believe more research is required to conclusively link RAO and the prevalence of acute stroke.

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