The method will allow to identify diseases that are the main cause of death and disability in the world
Cardiologists from the University of California in San Diego (USA) found that in the retina the human eye there is a biomarker of possible diseases of the cardiovascular system. Scientific work materials appeared in EclinicalMedicine.
It is known that people who are subject to cardiovascular diseases often face occlusion of the vessels of the retina. With a severe form of occlusion, atrophy of the two inner layers of the sensory membrane of the eye occurs, and with a paracantral acute median maculopathy, the average retinal layer is affected. To identify such anomalies use non-invasive visualization technologies with submillimeter resolution in vivo, as well as optical coherent tomography.
Eyes - a window in our health, many diseases can manifest themselves in them. And cardiovascular diseases are no exception. Ischemia, that is, a decrease in blood flow, caused by a heart disease, can lead to an insufficient inflow of blood to the eye and entail the diemb of retinal cells, leaving behind the steady "tags". We called them ischemic perivascular retina lesions, or ripls, and sought to determine whether they could serve as a biomarker of cardiovascular diseases, - Mathieu Bachum, head of the research group.From 2014 to 2019, the doctors conducted a study of almost 14 thousand records of the man who passed the oct scanning of the yellow stain. Further, patients were divided into two groups, in the first of which 84 people had received records about the presence of cardiovascular diseases in the medapate, while in the second group were 76 healthy people. It is worth noting that neither one of the research participants has not been revealed by the associated retinal pathologies.
In the US, the risk of heart disease and vessels is determined by the ASCVD calculator created by the American College of Cardiologists. According to researchers, people with border or low ASCVD indicators the number of RIPL was small, however, with an increase in risk ASCVD, the amount of retinal damage increased. The total number of Ripl in a group of volunteers with cardiovascular diseases was higher than that of the control group. The number of damage to the retina in people with stroke and ischemic heart disease was 3.7 and 2.4.
Scientists noted that the greatest amount of Ripl was recorded in people who have undergone stroke. They associate this with the fact that the retina is a direct continuation of the brain. Therefore, it can be argued that the number of Ripl speaks of brain diseases, and not about the defeats of coronary vessels. They also noted that in the future ophthalmologists who discovered Ripl in patients should be sent to a consultation to the cardiologist.