Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Incident Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people over 65 years old in the United States and has been associated with cardiovascular risk and decreased survival. There is conflicting data, however, regarding the contribution of AMD to the prediction of stroke. Aim: To determine whether AMD is a risk indicator for incident stroke in a meta-analysis of available prospective and retrospective cohort studies published in the English literature. Methods: We performed a systematic literature search of all studies published in English with Pub Med and other databases from 1966 to August 2014, reporting stroke incidence in patients with macular degeneration. Two investigators independently extracted the data. A random effects model was used to report Odds ratios (OR), with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Meta-regression using a mixed linear model was used to understand potential heterogeneity amongst studies. Results: We identified 9 studies that reported stroke incidence in patients with and without early AMD (N = 1,420,978). No significant association was found between early AMD with incident stroke. Combined, these 9 studies demonstrated random effects (OR, 1.12; CI, 0.86–1.47; I2 = 96%). Meta-regression on baseline covariates of age, sex, and year of publication did not significantly relate to heterogeneity. Conclusions: We found no significant relationship between AMD and incident stroke. Further studies are needed to clarify other causes of decreased survival in patients with AMD.