00:00What this study really shows about the connection of atrial fibrillation at the eye is that we can see in
00:08patients with atrial fibrillation that they have thinner retinal sub-layers, so parts of the inner part of the retina
00:16are thinner than comparable patients with no atrial fibrillation, and we have detected this even prior to the diagnosis of
00:28atrial fibrillation.
00:29I came into Moorfields for an afternoon appointment, where they took my blood pressure and pulse. After about half an
00:37hour to an hour, I went through to the theatre. I'm quite nervous about an eye operation, so I asked
00:43for sedation.
00:44The procedure was going quite well until about, I guess, something like 10-15 minutes into the operation, when I
00:53heard the anaesthetist say there's a problem. My shirt was undone and an ECG started to be done. You suspect
01:02the worst. Am I having a heart attack? What's going on?
01:05It is estimated that around 1.5 million people in the UK have atrial fibrillation, or AF, which causes an
01:13irregular heartbeat, although hundreds of thousands more could be living undiagnosed.
01:17AF sometimes causes no symptoms and is also intermittent, which means it can be missed on tests used to diagnose
01:25heart problems.
01:27While the condition itself is not life-wrestling, it can create blood clots, which can cause strokes.
01:33The latest analysis found that people with AF tended to have thinner retinal layers. Patients who did not have AF
01:40at the time their eye scans were taken but went on to develop the condition also had thinner retinal layers
01:48four years prior to attending hospital, on average.
01:52When I put into the cannula, the anaesthetist said it was okay to proceed with the operation, by which time
01:59I could start to feel things there and I asked for some more anaesthetic.
02:06The procedure was completed and I felt quite happy about it, but I think when I came out my wife
02:12said I looked quite distraught and my daughter was with me there.
02:17We were asked to wait to see the senior nurse, who then explained to me what had gone on, that
02:23I had had an arterial fibrillation and that was when I was told I would have to see a cardiologist
02:32as soon as possible.
02:34I first became involved in the AI work at Moorfields in 2018 when I joined as a clinical research fellow.
02:40We did previous work on retinal ischemia and we found that atrial fibrillation played a significant role in our cohort
02:51and as a follow-up project we tried to look at atrial fibrillation as an impact.
02:56Tune on, tune on, tune on up, write aYAN- micro director,
02:57Tune on, tune on, tune on, tune on, tune onONE ed, tune on that you can find aanch toner.
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