Retinal age and cardiovascular health
Studying the retina is an interesting tool for assessing the state of the body's microvascularization, simply by performing a fundus examination. This examination is non-invasive and simply involves dilating the pupil by using a mydriatic substance.
A team of researchers studied the association between retinal age gap - the difference between retinal age and a person's actual age - and several parameters in over 35,000 participants: arterial stiffness index, cardiovascular disease incidence, and stroke risk. These analyses were carried out using a deep learning model that had been trained to predict retinal age from fundus examinations of several thousand people. The results showed a significant association between the retinal age gap and the various parameters studied.
These data suggest that the retinal age gap could be an interesting biomarker for identifying individuals at risk of cardiovascular events. These results are very encouraging and need to be confirmed by studies in other populations.