Researchers at the University of California are investigating how retinal scans could potentially help identify patients at risk of heart disease. It is anticipated that such results could provide a new way of examining a patient’s risk of heart disease.
During the study, the records of 13,940 patients who received a retinal scan at UC San Diego Health were examined.
The researchers wanted to establish if retinal ischemic perivascular lesions (RIPL) could serve as a biomarker for cardiovascular disease.
At the end of the study, the results had shown they had identified 84 people who had heart disease and 74 without disease and found more RIPL in the eyes of individuals with heart disease.