Nature Biomedical Engineering

Eye-photo model maps individual patterns of death risk

Trained in a European cohort and tested in three others, the model estimated lifespan trajectories associated with observed mortality outcomes.

Figure 1 from Nature Biomedical Engineering
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Figure 1. Xu et al.
Cohort study of people across multiple geographic regionsBiomarkers

Independent replication

Limit: Health improvements and survival gains from using the model for screening were not measured

Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

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In a European cohort, researchers trained an artificial intelligence model to estimate individual death risk from photographs of the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye. This observational study also tested the model in three independent cohorts spanning Southeast Asia, Eurasia and North America.

The model reconstructed personalized lifespan trajectories—estimated patterns of death risk over time. These were associated with observed mortality outcomes, including age at death. The retinal measure was also associated with deaths from all causes and from specific causes. It predicted new cases of a range of diseases affecting the body and eyes.

Why it matters

Preventive care in aging populations needs affordable ways to assess health risks. The authors supported further evaluation of retinal imaging and trajectory modeling as one component of a comprehensive mortality-risk assessment.

Caveats

Observational associations do not establish that using the model for screening would improve health or extend life. The abstract does not report participant numbers, ages or the strength of the associations.

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