Microvascular disease and severe COVID-19 outcomes in UKBiobank participants with diabetes.

Aims: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence emerged suggesting that people with diabetic retinopathy (DR) or other microvascular diseases had greater risk of severe short-term outcomes. This study evaluated longer-term outcomes, providing more generalisable evidence.

Methods: We identified a cohort of UKBiobank participants with diabetes and retrieved their diagnostic codes for a variety of microvascular diseases, complications of diabetes and systemic comorbidities.

Novel linkage approach to join community-acquired and national data.

Background: Community optometrists in Scotland have performed regular free-at-point-of-care eye examinations for all, for over 15 years. Eye examinations include retinal imaging but image storage is fragmented and they are not used for research. The Scottish Collaborative Optometry-Ophthalmology Network e-research project aimed to collect these images and create a repository linked to routinely collected healthcare data, supporting the development of pre-symptomatic diagnostic tools.

Fine-mapping of retinal vascular complexity loci identifies Notch regulation as a shared mechanism with myocardial infarction outcomes.

There is increasing evidence that the complexity of the retinal vasculature measured as fractal dimension, D, might offer earlier insights into the progression of coronary artery disease (CAD) before traditional biomarkers can be detected. This association could be partly explained by a common genetic basis; however, the genetic component of D is poorly understood. We present a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 38,000 individuals with white British ancestry from the UK Biobank aimed to comprehensively study the genetic component of D and analyse its relationship with CAD.

Pre-existing diabetic retinopathy as a prognostic factor for COVID-19 outcomes amongst people with diabetes: A systematic review.

Aims: Certain patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) have high risk for complications from COVID-19. We aimed to test the hypothesis that pre-existing diabetic retinopathy (DR), a microvascular disease, is a prognostic indicator for poor COVID-19 outcome in this heterogeneous population.

Methods: Seven databases (including MEDLINE) and grey literature were searched, identifying eligible studies using predetermined selection criteria.

Conducting public involvement in dementia research: The contribution of the European Working Group of People with Dementia to the ROADMAP project.

Background: Dementia outcomes include memory loss, language impairment, reduced quality of life and personality changes. Research suggests that outcomes selected for dementia clinical trials might not be the most important to people affected.

Objective: One of the goals of the 'Real world Outcomes across the Alzheimer's Disease spectrum for better care: Multi-modal data Access Platform' (ROADMAP) project was to identify important outcomes from the perspective of people with dementia and their caregivers.