How eyes reveal the true state of health – scientists
Scientists at Seoul National University have proven that retinal fundus scanning can accurately determine a person's biological age. The study, published in GeroScience, showed that the gap between chronological and biological retinal age correlates with lifestyle and chronic diseases such as diabetes and cataracts.
A team of scientists from Seoul National University conducted a large-scale study proving that retinal fundus scanning can serve as an accurate and non-invasive method for assessing biological age. The results were published in the scientific journal GeroScience. The method is based on improving the Retinal Age Gap (RAG) assessment technology. Researchers trained an algorithm on a database of 29,530 retinal images from 7,535 patients, then tested it on 14,832 images from another 7,416 participants. The model determined chronological age with an average error of 2.5–2.7 years. Deviations in RAG indicators correlated with lifestyle and diseases: diabetes increased the indicator by 2.52 years, cataracts by 1.86 years, age-related macular degeneration by 0.6 years, and smoking by 0.5 years. The technology opens prospects for early detection of hidden pathologies, but additional clinical trials will be required for widespread implementation.