Retinal Scans can be Used by AI to Detect Heart Attacks

A study by Leeds University worked to teach Artificial Intelligence to analyse retinal scans and detect which patients are at risk of experiencing a cardiac arrest in the next year. The AI has been proven to be 70-80% reliable and can potentially be utilised to refer patients for a detailed cardiovascular investigation.

Professor Alex Frangi, who supervised the research, explained that “cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks, are the leading cause of early death worldwide and the second-largest killer in the UK. This causes chronic ill-health and misery worldwide. This technique opens the possibility of revolutionising the screening of cardiac disease. Retinal scans are comparatively cheap and routinely used in many optician practices. As a result of automated screening, patients who are at high risk of becoming ill could be referred to specialist cardiac services. The scans could also be used to track early signs of heart disease.”

An author of the study, Sven Plein, expressed that “The AI system is an excellent tool for unravelling the complex patterns that exist in nature, and that is what we have found – the intricate pattern of changes in the retina linked to changes in the heart.”

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