Discover if you have heart disease through your eyes.

Eyes are often referred to as windows to the soul, but they can also offer insights into the condition of your heart.

A novel, precise, and cost-efficient eye examination has been introduced by researchers, utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate the risk of heart disease. While current tests can predict the risk of heart attack and stroke, tools for assessing overall mortality risk are lacking.

To bridge this gap, researchers created an AI-powered tool named QUARTZ to analyze the network of blood vessels in the eye. Previous studies have indicated that these tiny blood vessels can act as early indicators of circulatory diseases, but further exploration of the retinal vasculature was needed to confirm their significance.

Overview

A group of researchers in the UK employed QUARTZ to analyze images of 88,053 adults aged 40 to 69 from the UK Biobank database. The tool examines the width and curvature of retinal veins and arteries to develop predictive models for heart attack, stroke, and circulatory disease-related deaths.

In addition to the participants from the Biobank, the researchers tested the model on a separate group of 7,411 individuals aged 48 to 92, making it the most extensive study of retinal vasculature in a population setting.

Comparison of QUARTZ with other risk factors and the Framingham risk score (FRS), a tool estimating the risk of developing heart disease over ten years, revealed promising outcomes. The tool exhibited similar or superior performance in predicting stroke and heart attack risks.

During a follow-up period of seven to nine years, there were 327 circulatory disease-related deaths among the UK Biobank participants and 201 in the other cohort.

An Effective Predictor of Mortality

The results showed that retinal vascular characteristics were notable predictors of circulatory disease mortality in men and contributed to risk assessment in women. When combined with age, smoking, and medical history, these predictive models captured a significant portion of circulatory disease deaths in high-risk individuals.

QUARTZ offers a fully automated, cost-effective, and non-invasive approach for risk prediction, potentially reaching a wider population segment without requiring blood samples or blood pressure measurements.

Accessing QUARTZ

The examination can be performed by ophthalmologists or trained assessors outside medical facilities, enabling the identification of individuals at medium to high risk who might otherwise remain undetected. These individuals can then be directed for further clinical assessment and treatment.

Professor Alicja Rudnicka, the lead researcher, emphasized the potential of retinal vasculature as a marker for predicting circulatory mortality and stroke, especially in an aging population with multiple health conditions.

While not yet widely accessible, researchers expect that the QUARTZ retinal scan will become more readily available. This is just one of several new tests in development, including the ApoB test, which measures apolipoprotein levels in the blood and is considered a more reliable indicator of heart health than LDL cholesterol.