Photographs of patients’ EYES can reveal if they’re likely to die of heart failure, study claims after finding smaller pupils was linked to worse survival with the condition

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

Research found that patients with larger eye pupils are consistently more likely to survive heart failure and to stay out of hospital.

The study photographed the eyes of 870 patients who were hospitalised with acute heart failure. 

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

The study, published yesterday by the European Society of Cardiology, found that people with smaller pupils were twice as likely to die.

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Kitasato University Hospital researchers in Japan found that patients with smaller eye pupils were twice as likely to die from heart failure

Meanwhile, 47 per cent of those with small pupils were readmitted to hospital, compared with just 28 per cent of those with large pupils.

Study author Dr Kohei Nozaki, of Kitasato University Hospital in Japan, said: ‘Our results suggest that pupil area is a novel way to identify heart patients at elevated risk of death or hospital readmission.