SINGAPORE -- The blood vessels of the eyes can provide clues to the risks of a person suffering from a stroke, a Singapore doctor has discovered.

Wong Tien Yin has found that narrow blood vessels with weak walls allowing blood and fats to leak into the eyes revealed a person had a higher risk of a stroke, the **** Straits Times **** reported Friday, AFP reportedV

Wong, a medical doctor and university assistant professor, made the discovery from a study he led while working on his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

The study covered 10,000 people, all Caucasians aged between 45-65, who had their eyes photographed and monitored for three-and-a-half years to find out if any of them had had a stroke.

He explained that the same carotid arteries supply blood to the brain and the eyes. Any damage to the blood vessels of the brain is also reflected in the blood vessels of the retina, the lining at the back of the eyeball.

The damage can be seen in the photographs of the eyes, and can indicate that a person has a higher chance of getting a stroke, he said.

"We found that if you have high blood pressure and retinal changes, you are almost six times as likely to develop stroke than if you had neither," he was quoted as saying.

But wong said that much more research needed to be carried out to bolster the findings.

He is planning to conduct the next phase of his research later this year involving 6,000 people aged 45-80, and of different races, the **** Straits Times **** said.

Their eyes will be photographed and they will be monitored for four to 10 years. However, they will be monitored not just for stroke but for other major diseases like heart and kidney failure.

"It is possible that looking at the retinal vessels itself would tell us something about the health of not just the brain but also other organs of the body," he told the paper.