Retinal vascular fingerprints predict stroke risk
Stroke is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases and affects over 100 million people worldwide. However, nearly 90% of strokes are in fact attributable to modifiable risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, diet, and smoking, highlight the importance of early detection and intervention.
A recent study published in journal Heart revealed that a simple retinal model, using only retinal vascular fingerprints with age and sex, could predict stroke risk with similar accuracy to traditional risk assessment methods that require invasive blood tests and extensive medical history, offering a non-invasive, low-cost screening approach.
Key Findings and Implications:
- This non-invasive screening method leverages existing ophthalmological infrastructure, making it easily implementable in routine eye check-ups without requiring invasive blood tests or multiple clinical measurements.
- The predictive model using only age, sex, and retinal parameters performed comparably to traditional risk assessment methods, making it particularly valuable for primary healthcare and low-resource settings.
- The findings could catalyze interdisciplinary collaboration between ophthalmologists and neurologists, creating integrated care pathways where retinal screening directly informs stroke risk assessment and intervention.
This research underscores the critical importance of integrating eye health into broader healthcare programs. As healthcare systems worldwide seek more efficient, cost-effective screening methods, retinal imaging represents an opportunity to detect multiple health risks through a single, non-invasive test.
Reference: Yusufu M, Friedman DS, Kang M, et al. Retinal vascular fingerprints predict incident stroke: findings from the UK Biobank cohort study. Heart. 2025;111(7):306-313. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2024-324705
