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Research into an eye test that could one day help prevent heart attacks has received a A$300,000 (£128,000) grant from drugs giant Pfizer.

Associate professor Tien Wong and colleagues at the Centre for Eye Research Australia at the University of Melbourne are in the advanced stages of research into early signs of heart disease visible in the eye.

‘It is an ambitious goal but our ultimate aim is to develop a web-based imaging system from which optometrists and ophthalmologists can upload images which will then be assessed for retinal markers of future cardiovascular disease,' said Wong.

‘We hope the treating specialist will then be able to determine someone's likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease by looking at the images so that appropriate intervention may take place.’

Development of the retinal imaging system follows Wong's research which demonstrated that subtle damage to blood vessels in the retina can predict cardiovascular disease. 

Using data collected from three large clinical trials involving about 20,000 people, Wong's research demonstrated the link between different changes in retinal blood vessels and different types of cardiovascular disease.

His research showed that more severe changes in the retinal arteries predicted stroke, but that subtle degrees of narrowing of blood vessels predicted high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

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