Hypertensive retinopathy can predict stroke: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on observational studies

•Patients with HTR exhibited a significantly higher overall risk of stroke;•The overall methodological quality of the studies related to stroke in HTR is high;•HTR had the highest risk of stroke in the Asian region;•The risk of stroke in patients with grade 3/4 HTR was observed to be higher than that grade 1/2 HTR. The aim of this study was to determine whether hypertensive retinopathy is specifically associated with stroke. The relevant studies published until December 18, 2023 were identified as well as selected from PubMed, Embase, Web of science, WanFang, CNKI, VIP, and CBM databases. Hazard ratios (HRs), risk ratios (RRs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined. Six cohort studies were included in this analysis. Patients with hypertensive retinopathy exhibited a significantly higher overall risk of stroke than those without hypertensive retinopathy (RR=1.46, 95%CI: 1.29-1.65). When subgroups were analyzed by region, patients with hypertensive retinopathy in Asia had the highest risk of stroke (RR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.33-1.77). In addition, among the different severity grades of hypertensive retinopathy, the risk of stroke in patients with grade 3/4 hypertensive retinopathy (RR=1.82, 95%CI: 1.41-2.34) was observed to be higher than that in patients with grade 1/2 hypertensive retinopathy (RR=1.43, 95%CI: 1.27-1.61). Hypertensive retinopathy was found to be associated with an increased risk of stroke. Thus, it is necessary to include retinopathy in the routine screening of patients with hypertension.