AI eye checks can predict heart disease risk in less than minute, finds study

They say the results could open the door to a highly effective, non-invasive test becoming available for people at medium to high risk of heart disease that does not have to be done in a clinic.

Their findings were published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Circulatory diseases, including cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke, are major causes of ill health and death worldwide. Cardiovascular disease alone is the most common cause of death globally. It accounts for one in four deaths in the UK alone.

While several tests to predict risk exist, they are not always able to accurately identify those who will go on to develop or die of heart disease.

They used the tool to scan images from 88,052 UK Biobank participants aged 40 to 69. The researchers looked specifically at the width, vessel area and degree of curviness of the arteries and veins in the retina to develop prediction models for stroke, heart attack and death from circulatory disease.

They subsequently applied the models to the retinal images of 7,411 participants, aged 48 to 92, of the European prospective investigation into cancer (Epic)-Norfolk study. The performance of Quartz was compared with the widely used Framingham risk scores framework.

The AI tool harnessed data from participants including any history of smoking, drugs to treat high blood pressure, and previous heart attacks.

Researchers found the retina data computed by Quartz was significantly associated with cardiovascular disease, deaths and strokes, with similar predictive performance to the Framingham clinical risk score.