Retinal properties & disease

Project by Alessandro Gigliotti, Elia Quadri, Gionata Valerio

Supervisor: Sofía Ortín Vela

Link to the presentation:Media:Retinal_properties_&_disease_presentation_by_Alessandro_Gigliotti,_Elia_Quadri,_Gionata_Valerio.pdf

Summary

This project aims to investigate the interaction between retinal parameters and biomarkers to explain three different diseases: diabetes, hypertension, and myopia. In particular, we want to understand whether the association that these factors have with disease can be affected by their interaction, thus being confounding.

We selected biomarkers and retinal parameters that, according to the literature, show a correlation with these diseases. For data analysis, we used linear and logistic regressions. First, we eliminated the influence of general variables such as sex and age on the parameters, using residuals to obtain more precise estimates. Next, we observed how the beta coefficient of the regressions on the retinal parameters varied with the addition of the different biomarkers in the regression.

Our results show that in the case of myopia, an ocular disease closely related to the retina, retinal parameters are not influenced by biomarkers and are the main explanatory factors for the disease. In contrast, for diabetes and hypertension, biomarkers appear to be more crucial in explaining these diseases than retinal parameters, showing a significant influence of biomarkers on the retina parameters.