High street eye scan predicts your risk of having heart attack or stroke ten years ahead
Basic photographs of the back of the eye, taken at an opticians for £20 and analysed by artificial intelligence to spot warning signs, are 70 per cent accurate.
The results can then be used to refer those unaware they are at risk to a doctor to work on preventing a deadly attack.
Researcher Dr Ify Mordi, from the University of Dundee, said: 'This is a one-stop scan which is routinely performed and takes less than a minute.
"If there is damage or narrowing of the blood vessels at the back of the eye, there is a good chance that that will also be seen further inside the body. The eyes are a window to the heart.'
The scans are offered in high street opticians and are even available on the NHS for some.
Cardiologist Dr Mordi, a British Heart Foundation research fellow, ran old scans from 1,200 diabetes patients through AI software.
In seven in ten cases it identified the signs in those who went on to have a major heart problem within a decade.
Professor Bryan Williams, chief medical officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: 'The more accurately we can detect someone's risk of a heart attack or stroke, the better the opportunities to prevent them happening.
'Cutting-edge innovations like this could play a role in improving risk prediction.'
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