Researchers in Australia devised an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program that helps in predicting a person’s years of life by looking into their eye. Here’s all you need to know.
Eyes: The windows of the soul and health
Have you ever whiled away time predicting when someone will die? Well, to know the answer, all you need to do is scan your eyes. Researchers from Australia devised a new AI program that can help in predicting how many years a person will live by looking into the retina. The retina is the eye tissue present in the back of the eye. The study, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology used several retina studies. Additionally, according to the researchers, eyes act as a ‘window’ into a person’s health.
Moreover, scientists from the Centre for Eye Research in Melbourne claim that the algorithm is successful in predicting retinal age. “The retina also offers a unique, accessible window to evaluate underlying pathological processes of systemic vascular and neurological diseases. It has an association with increased risks of mortality,” stated Dr. Mingguang He, the author of the study. He is a professor of ophthalmic epidemiology at the Centre for Eye Research and the University of Melbourne.
More about the study
Additionally, after analyzing over 130,000 retinal images. The images are from samples given to the UK Biobank. It is a long-term government-funded study with over 500,000 participants between the ages of 40 and 60 in the UK. “The significant association between retinal age gap and non-cardiovascular/non-cancer mortality. Together with the growing evidence of the link between eye and brain, may support the notion that the retina is the ‘window’ of neurological diseases,” revealed the study.
The study also found that there was a two percent growth of risk from death. It is for every additional year between someone’s age and the older biological age identified in the retina.