Aging in the eye predicts risk for kidney failure

Among 35,864 United Kingdom residents, every one-year increase in retinal age, assessed by retinal microvasculature changes, was associated with a 10% higher risk of incident kidney failure over 11 years of follow-up.

There is a pressing need to identify early predictive biomarkers of kidney failure, given its associated substantial morbidity and mortality. Ageing biomarkers have been associated with kidney failure but their clinical application has been challenging. In this study recently published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), retinal age gap (retina-predicted age minus chronological age), a clinically validated and artificial intelligence powered ageing biomarker based on retinal imaging, was associated with the future risk of kidney failure among UK residents. This non-invasive and ageing biomarker may hold promise to assist in the identification of people at elevated risk for kidney failure.

ARTICLE TITLE: Association of Retinal Age Gap and Risk of Kidney Failure: A UK Biobank Study

AUTHORS: Shiran Zhang, MD, Ruiye Chen, MD, Yan Wang, MD, Wenyi Hu, MD, Katerina V. Kiburg, PhD, Junyao Zhang, BBiomedSc, Xiaohong Yang, MD, Honghua Yu, MD, Mingguang He, MD, Wei Wang, MD, and Zhuoting Zhu, MD

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.09.018