Commonly used eye test could predict whether you will have a stroke

A groundbreaking study indicates that a simple eye test examining the blood vessels in the retina could help determine if a person was at risk of having an oncoming stroke. The retinal vascular network mirrors characteristics found in the brain's vasculature. By assessing factors like the density, curliness, and branching angles of the veins and arteries in the eye, scientists can infer insights about a person's overall health, reports Daily Express UK.

Three unusual signs you're a week away from having a stroke Doctor warns hiccups can be an early sign of a stroke In a massive study, researchers scrutinized eye images from over 45,000 participants in the UK Biobank. Out of these, 749 experienced a stroke over an average monitoring span of 13 years. The research pinpointed 29 vascular health markers that seemed to aid in predicting an individual's likelihood of having a stroke.



When this "vascular fingerprint" was combined with data on age and gender, it matched the predictive power of conventional stroke risk assessments such as cholesterol levels, body weight, and smoking habits. The researchers highlighted that their technique utilizes fundus photography, a noninvasive and pain-free method already commonly used by optometrists, which captures images of the interior surface of the eye. Mayinuer Yusufu, leading the team at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, stated 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.

" DON'T MISS: Warning over injury which 'may double' risk of developing dementia Eight warning signs you're probably prediabetic - and how to fix it Driver who had a stroke wins $13 million after cops accused her of being drunk Yusufu added: "Improved stroke prediction models are needed and novel approaches to retinal vessel analysis offer the possibility of improved prediction accuracy." Strokes happen when the blood supply to a part of the brain is cut off, affecting around 100,000 individuals in the UK annually. An NHS analysis conducted last year revealed a 28% increase in hospital admissions due to strokes over the past two decades.

In the 2023/24 period, England saw 111,137 stroke admissions, a significant rise from the 87,069 recorded in 2004/05. This trend is believed to be partly driven by an ageing population and the effects of lifestyle factors on the nation's cardiovascular health. In the US, there are more than 795,00 strokes per year, and 600,000 of those strokes are first or new strokes, according to UTMB Health.

And while the numbers are significant, there are over four million stroke survivors living in the US. According to UTMB, there is a myth that strokes are not preventable, but that's not the case, in fact, up to 80% of strokes are preventable..