Retina study opens eyes to a new way to check heart health

A PIONEERING study by Scottish scientists will examine whether scanning blood vessels in the eye can identify signs of heart disease.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh said their work could make it possible to identify patients at risk of heart disease without the need to carry out invasive procedures such as biopsies or angiograms.

More than 1,000 patients with suspected heart disease are to be recruited for the study.

They will have high definition images taken of their retinas to check for indications in the blood vessels – such as widening or unusual branching – that may be linked to heart disease.

The project is being led by the university’s Clinical Research Imaging Centre (CRIC) in collaboration with the University of Dundee, NHS Lothian’s Princess Alexandra Eye Pavillion, NHS Tayside’s Ninewells Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

Dr Tom MacGillivray, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and manager of the image analysis laboratory in CRIC, said: “We know problems in the eye are linked to conditions such as diabetes and that abnormalities in the eyes’ blood vessels can also indicate vascular problems in the brain.

“If we can identify early problems in the blood vessels in the eyes we might potentially pinpoint signs of heart disease. This could help identify people who would benefit from early lifestyle changes and preventative therapies.”

Dr MacGillivray added: “Opticians tend to be looking for standard conditions such as diabetes and glaucoma, but we’ve invented something more advanced.

“One of the key things is that we will have great images of blood vessels and be able to use new software tools to spot subtle changes, which we can then quantify by computer.”