Ocular Signs Related to Overweight and Arterial Hypertension in Children: A Systematic Review.

Background: The ocular effects of obesity and hypertension need to be established and can be used as prognostic markers.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of ophthalmological alterations in children and adolescents who are overweight and/or have SAH.

Methods: The database for this study included all observational studies (CS, cohort, case-control and "baseline" description of randomized clinical trials) with children and/or adolescents who were overweight, obese or had SAH and that measured ophthalmological alterations.

Results: Comparative studies with healthy children demonstrated positive association between body adiposity with retinal venular dilation, and SAH with retinal arteriolar narrowing. Different retinal fundus cameras and computer-assisted programs to evaluate the retinal vessels, variations in the methods of analysis, adjustments, populations, were the main arguments against formal meta-analysis. The heterogeneity was too high (I² >90%, in fixed or randomized effects), and the lack of linearity, normal distribution and homoscedasticity did not recommend meta-regression.

Conclusion: Obesity and SAH show associations with ophthalmological alterations, especially with retinal vessel diameter. Lack of standardization does not allow a quantitative evaluation.