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. .

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

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.

Heart failure means that the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly.

It's sometimes called congestive heart failure, although this name is not widely used nowadays.

Heart failure does not mean your heart has stopped working.

Dr Nozaki said pupil area is another way to assess autonomic function and has been used in patients with Parkinson’s disease and diabetes?

The new study examined whether pupil area could predict prognosis in patients with heart failure.

The study was conducted in 870 patients hospitalised for acute heart failure in 2012 to 2017?

Large pupil area was consistently linked with favourable survival - regardless of age, sex, and the presence of either normal heart rhythm or atrial fibrillation

‘Our study indicates that it could be used in daily clinical practice to predict prognosis in patients with heart failure, including those who also have atrial fibrillation

He noted that pupil area cannot be used in patients with severe retinopathy or other eye diseases.