Originally published October 12 2005
Retinal lesions can increase the risk of suffering a stroke
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Paul Mitchell, director of the Centre for Vision Research at Westmead Millennium Institute, recently led a study of 3,600 people age 50 and over, and the results suggest that those patients with retinopathy, or lesions of the retina, were three times as likely to suffer a stroke.
A SIMPLE eye test could predict who is likely to have a stroke in the next seven years.
A study of more than 3600 people over the age of 50 found those with a condition called retinopathy, or lesions of the retina, were three times more likely to suffer a stroke, even if they displayed no other risk factors.
Paul Mitchell, director of the Centre for Vision Research at Westmead Millennium Institute, said about 10 per cent of people over 50 had retinopathy, diagnosed by taking high-resolution photographs of the retina.
"This test is a marker for stroke even for people who don't have other stroke risk factors like high blood pressure.
"The eye and the brain circulation are essentially identical, so by taking an image of the retina we are seeing a snapshot of what might be happening in the brain."
National Stroke Foundation chief executive Erin Lalor said: "About 48,000 people a year have a stroke, and within a year of having a stroke about a third of the people will die, about a third will make a complete recovery and about a third of the people will have some disability.
"Any new advances in stroke prevention are encouraging."
The findings will be published in the journal Neurology.
Professor Mitchell said further research involving 2000 stroke patients in Sydney and Melbourne had begun to determine whether retinopathy was a predictor of certain types of stroke.
"We are now continuing to work to explore the relevance of this work and to see how it can play a specific practical role in the future," he said.
"We're recruiting about 2000 people in Sydney and Melbourne who have had a stroke to look at how common these retinal signs are, and whether they are helpful in predicting the type of stroke."
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