In a new study, researchers found that the gap between the biological age of the retina and a person’s real (chronological) age could be a predictive biomarker for mortality risk.
This ‘retinal age gap’ could be used as a screening tool for risk stratification and delivery of tailored interventions.
Previous studies have shown that the network of small vessels (microvasculature) in the retina might be a reliable indicator of the overall health of the body’s circulatory system and the brain.
While the risks of illness and death increase with age, it’s clear that these risks vary considerably among people of the same age
This implies that ‘biological aging’ is unique to the individual and maybe a better indicator of current and future health.
Tissue, cell, chemical, and imaging-based indicators have been developed to pick up biological aging that is out of step with chronological aging.
But these techniques are fraught with ethical/privacy issues as well as often being invasive, expensive, and time-consuming.
In the current study, the team turned to deep learning to see if the ‘retinal age gap’ is linked to a heightened risk of death.
They drew on 80,169 fundus images taken from 46,969 adults aged 40 to 69, all of whom were part of the UK Biobank.
Some 19,200 fundus images from the right eyes of 11,052 participants in relatively good health at the initial Biobank health check were used to validate the accuracy of the deep learning model for retinal age prediction.
They found that large retinal age gaps in years were significantly associated with 49%-67% higher risks of death, other than from cardiovascular disease or cancer.
And each 1-year increase in the retinal age gap was linked to a 2% increase in the risk of death from any cause, and a 3% increase in the risk of death from a specific cause other than cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The above result accounts for potentially influential factors, such as high blood pressure, weight (BMI), lifestyle, and ethnicity.
The findings suggest that the retina plays an important role in the aging process.
It is sensitive to the cumulative damages of aging which increase the mortality risk.
The retinal age gap might be a potential biomarker of aging that is closely related to the risk of mortality.
If you care about eye diseases, please read studies about how COVID-19 can harm your eyes and findings of drug that could benefit older people with blinding eye disease.
For more information about eye health, please see recent studies about pure cocoa that may improve your eye sight in daylight, and results showing this therapy may reverse diabetes-related eye disease.
The study was conducted by Zhuoting Zhu et al., and published in British Journal of Ophthalmology.
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