How size of pupils can predict if you’ll survive heart failure

LOOKING into the eyes of a patient with heart failure can tell doctors how long they have to live, a study found.

Experts discovered those with larger pupils are consistently more likely to survive.

The study photographed the eyes of 870 older patients in hospital with acute heart failure.

The participants were divided into those with large pupils and those with smaller ones.

Those in the smaller category were twice as likely to die, the study found. And 47 per cent of patients in that group were also readmitted to hospital, compared with just 28 per cent of those in the other category.

Study author Dr Kohei Nozaki, of Kitasato University Hospital in Japan, said: ‘Our results sug

‘Improve outlook’

gest it is a novel way to identify patients at elevated risk. It provides an opportunity to intervene and improve outlook.’

Heart failure affects nearly one million Britons. It is a life-threatening condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.

Up to 45 per cent of patients admitted to hospital die within 12 months, and the majority die within five years. Dr Nozaki said: ‘Finding better ways to pinpoint which patients are more likely to be readmitted or die is crucial.’

He explained that one of the causes of worsening heart failure is disturbed function of the body’s autonomic system, which controls heart rate, digestion and respiration.

Dr Nozaki said pupil area is another way to assess autonomic function and has been used in those with Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. The study was published by the European Society of Cardiology.