A test that looks at blood vessels in the back of the eye can predict a person’s risk of suffering a stroke, a study suggests.
The retina’s intricate vascular network shares common features with that of the brain.
This means that analysing features such as the density, twistedness and branching angle of veins and arteries can provide clues about a person’s systemic health.
Researchers analysed images from more than 45,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank. Of those, 749 suffered a stroke during an average follow-up period of 13 years.
The study identified 29 indicators of vascular health that appeared to help predict a person’s stroke risk.
When combined with information about their age and sex, this “vascular fingerprint” was as good at predicting stroke risk as analysis of traditional risk measures such as cholesterol, weight and smoking status.
The team noted that their method used fundus photography which is already widely offered by opticians. The painless, noninvasive procedure involves taking a picture of the back inner wall of the eye.
Led by Mayinuer Yusufu at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, the researchers wrote in the BMJ journal Heart: “Traditional stroke risk assessment methods such as blood tests can be invasive or expensive and also are limited in their prediction success.
“Improved stroke prediction models are needed and novel approaches to retinal vessel analysis offer the possibility of improved prediction accuracy.”
Strokes occur when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. Around 100,000 people suffer a stroke each year in the UK.
NHS analysis last year found that the number of people being admitted to hospital following a stroke had risen by 28% in the last 20 years.
There were 111,137 stroke admissions in England in 2023/24 – up from 87,069 in 2004/05.
The trend is thought to have been driven in part by an ageing population and the impacts of lifestyle factors on the nation’s heart and circulatory health.
