Key points from article :
Looking deep into the eye can tell about a person's health, doctors say.
A new study says the retina may provide an easy, noninvasive way to determine our body's true biological age.
"A unique, accessible window to evaluate underlying systemic vascular and neurological diseases," - Mingguang He, study author.
Analyzed over 130,000 retinal images from samples given by people aged 40-69 years.
Estimated retinal age gap between biological health of the eye and person's age since birth, using a deep learning model.
A 2% increase in risk of death for each year of difference.
Larger gaps of 3, 5 and 10 years were significantly associated with up to a 67% higher risk of death from specific diseases.
Failed to predict an increased risk of death associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer -- might be due to a smaller number of cases or improved treatments.
Retinal age may be a clinically significant biomarker of ageing.
Study by Sun Yat-sen University and University of Melbourne published in BJO.
