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The introduction in the past few years of advanced optical coherence tomography (OCT) techniques has greatly increased our understanding of the choroid, which is the most important vascular layer of the eye. Our study aimed to assess choroidal thickness by using swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) in essential hypertensive patients (EHs) with and without early-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD). We enrolled 100 EHs, of whom 65 were without kidney damage, and 35 had stage 1-3 CKD. In all of the participants, SS-OCT and a routine biochemical workup were performed. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated by the CKD Epidemiology Collaboration equation (eGFR). CKD was defined in agreement with the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes 2002 guidelines. OCT measurements were performed according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) protocol, which divides the macula into nine subfields. The circular grid consists of three concentric rings. EHs with CKD showed thinner choroidal thicknesses than those without it (all p

The introduction in last years of advanced techniques of optical coherence tomography (OCT) has greatly increased our understanding of the choroid, that is the most important vascular layer of the eye. Our study was aimed to assess choroidal thickness by using Swept-Source OCT (SS-OCT) in essential hypertensive patients (EHs) with and without subclinical renal damage (SRD). We enrolled 100 EHs of which 65 without kidney damage and 35 with SRD. In all the participants SS-OCT and a routine biochemical workup were performed. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated by the CKD-EPI equation (eGFR). SRD was defined, by the presence of microalbuminuria or eGFR between 30 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. OCT measurements were performed according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) protocol, that divides the macula into 9 subfields. The circular grid consists of 3 concentric rings. EHs with SRD showed thinner choroidal thicknesses than those without kidney damage (all p < 0.05), even after adjustment for age. Overall choroidal thickness correlated significantly and directly with eGFR (r = 0.36) and negatively with urinary albumin excretion (r = – 0.39). The association of choroidal thickness with SRD was confirmed in multiple logistic regression analyses once the effect of age, antihypertensive therapy and triglycerides was accounted for. The odds ratio of having SRD associated with a standard deviation increase of overall choroidal thickness was 0.43 (0.24–0.75, 95% confidence interval; p = 0.007). In conclusion, our study confirms the close relationships between changes in ocular microcirculation and renal dysfunction.