Can an Eye Exam Predict Future Cardiovascular Problems?
New research from the Hypertension journal
maintains that your eyes may be the windows to your heart, quite
literally. In fact, by simply looking at your eyes, the researchers can
predict if you’ll be suffering from hypertension or have other
cardiovascular problems years after. Scroll below to learn more about
this research.
Heart disease and cardiovascular issues are
on the rise, and there’s a lot we don’t know about it, still. One major
issue is that of early diagnosis and prevention, with medical
professionals still lacking the tools that could let them select the
individuals at high risk of cardiovascular disease, with many
unexplained cases of heart attack and stroke slipping through the cracks
each year.
In search of quick and non-invasive methods
that could help predict cardiovascular issues, scientists turned to our
eyes, which they believe may tell us more about our hearts than we’d
expect. Previous research has established that retinal alterations in
adults can predict hypertension in adults and even in children.
In fact, a Swiss pediatric study found that children as young as 6 years
old exhibit changes in the blood supply to the eyes that points to the
earliest signs of blood pressure alterations. These previous studies
prompted a large scale project in the UK looking at retinal changes in
55,000 middle-aged and senior adults.
To do so, 3.5 million images of the blood
vessels in the eyes were taken and then analyzed. The study found that
the smallest capillaries located in the back of the eye were affected by
hypertension and artery stiffness. None of these changes affected the
patients’ vision, but they were a reflection of the cardiovascular
health of each patient.
This way, just a quick look at a person’s eye may show a medical
professional how likely the patient is to have a heart event or any
other cardiovascular issue, making this eye exam a useful diagnostic
tool. The next step in the study is to put the theory and observations
to the test and see how well the recorded retinal changes will predict
the likelihood of a heart event in the next 10 years.
Given that cardiovascular disease in one of the greatest health threats
of the present, a retinal exam like this may soon become a useful tool
for managing and preventing heart conditions and hypertension.