A recent study published in Science Translational Medicine has revealed groundbreaking findings on the potential links between retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) images and systemic health. The study, conducted by Seyedeh Maryam Zekavat, Saman Doroodgar Jorshery, Franziska G. Rauscher, Katrin Horn, Nazlee Zebardast, and other researchers, analyzed retinal layer thicknesses using macular OCT images from 44,823 UK Biobank participants.

The researchers performed cross-phenotype association analyses, associating retinal thicknesses with 1866 incident conditions and 88 quantitative traits and blood biomarkers over a median 10-year follow-up period. Additionally, genome-wide association studies were conducted, identifying inherited genetic markers that influence retinal layer thicknesses. The study’s findings were further validated among the LIFE-Adult Study participants.

The results of the study indicated significant associations between retinal layer thickness and incident ocular, neuropsychiatric, and cardiometabolic diseases. Notably, the genome-wide associations identified 259 loci linked to retinal layer thickness, revealing concordant genetic and phenotypic associations between OCT retinal layer thickness and certain ocular and systemic conditions.

These findings suggest that OCT imaging may serve as a valuable tool for deriving retinal markers indicative of systemic and ocular health. However, the researchers emphasize the need for further validation of the clinical utility of OCT imaging in this context.

The study’s implications are profound, as they hint at the potential for OCT imaging to provide insights into systemic health conditions, offering a noninvasive and rapid means of capturing detailed retinal anatomy. The ability to identify associations between retinal layer thickness and various systemic diseases could have significant implications for early detection and monitoring of health conditions.