According to a new study based on over 50,000 eye scans, the retina age gap’ may be used to determine a person’s odds of suffering a stroke.
This is the age difference between a patient and their retina, as determined by the health of the blood vessels and tissue in the region. The study published in the journal BMC Medicine found that people whose retinas looked older than their real age were up to 2.3 times more likely to have a stroke in the next six years.
In the US, there are more than 795,000 stroke victims annually. Of them, around 610,000 are new or first strokes. Nearly 1 in 4 strokes, or about 185,000, occur among persons who have already had a stroke. Ischemic strokes, in which blood flow to the brain is interrupted, account for around 87% of all strokes.
The remaining strokes are hemorrhagic strokes, which occur when a weak vessel bursts and bleeds into the brain, harming it.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes are the key risk factors.
In order to address risk factors, physicians may prescribe medicine or lifestyle adjustments if they could quickly identify people who were most at risk.
For the latest study, scientists from Melbourne University in Australia, the Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences in China, and other places got information about 46,969 people’s lifestyles, such as if they smoked or drank, as well as detailed scans of their retinas, similar to what an optician would do.
Artificial intelligence, in which computers are taught by examples, was used to analyze the findings. Nearly 300 men and women suffered strokes in the six years afterwards. The researchers discovered that the risk of stroke rose by 5% for every year that the retina’s biological age exceeded the patient’s actual age. A stroke was 2.3 times more likely to occur in those with the greatest age difference.
Retinal scans, according to the researchers, offer “enormous potential” for screening a huge number of patients for the risk of stroke. They said that it’s inexpensive, non-invasive, quick (taking just a few minutes), and may even be able to embed technology into a smartphone for patients to use at home.
The condition of the retina, according to this hypothesis, is a reflection of the ageing of the blood vessels in the brain and, as a result, the risk of having a stroke.
Gwyn Williams, a consultant ophthalmologist at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital, weighed in on the study, saying, “The rise of artificial intelligence and eye imaging is one of the most exciting developments in medicine.”
With the use of this potent technology, it may be feasible to identify patients at risk for stroke years or even decades in advance, while they are well and content.
Moreover, research published in BMJ Open found that women who had pre-eclampsia were 60% more likely to have heart disease and 40% more likely to have a stroke in the subsequent 50 years.
In certain cases, the condition associated with pregnancy might lead to hypertension. In a study of 120,000 women, 31,000 of whom had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia while pregnant, doctors at Helsinki University Hospital in Finland came to the following conclusion: “Women with a history of pre-eclampsia should be screened and treated for cardiovascular risk factors.”
Obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol are a number of pre-eclampsia risk factors that are also associated with high blood pressure and heart disease.
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