A simple eye test could help detect Alzheimer's disease earlier, according to a study

DURHAM, N.C. – Your eyes may be the window of your soul, but thanks to new research, they may also be the key to early detection of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the Duke Eye Center claim that a simple eye sweep could reveal brain activity associated with the debilitating disease.

Ophthalmologists could not only equip their patients with glasses or contact persons in the future, but they could also regularly seek out people with Alzheimer's disease. The research team found that blood vessel activity in the eyes of patients with Alzheimer's disease was very different from that seen in healthy individuals.

"We know that changes occur in the brain in small blood vessels in people with Alzheimer's disease and, as the retina is an extension of the brain, we have been trying to find out if these changes could be detected in the retina with a new technology that is less invasive and easy to obtain, "says Dr. Dilraj S. Grewal, lead author, ophthalmologist and retinal surgeon at Duke, in a press release.

In healthy people, blood vessels form a dense network inside the retina, according to the researchers, but in patients with Alzheimer's disease, this tissue is significantly weaker. Use of a non-invasive technology called optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), the authors found these differences by looking at the eyes of 133 people in good health, against 39 people with Alzheimer's disease and 37 people with mild cognitive impairment. The Octa Eye Scanner allows doctors to take high resolution images of the retina in minutes and see the activity of the blood vessels.

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Changes in the density of blood vessels in the retina may indicate similar activity in the brain in people with Alzheimer's disease. But these changes can occur before the symptoms become noticeable, such as changes in memory. This is why the authors believe that this eye analysis could be revolutionary.

"The early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is a huge and unmet need," says Dr. Sharon Fekrat, lead author, ophthalmologist and retinal surgeon at Duke, in a statement to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "It is not possible for current techniques such as brain scan or lumbar puncture (lumbar puncture) to track the number of patients with this disease. It is possible that these changes in the density of the blood vessels in the retina may reflect what is happening in the tiny blood vessels of the brain. Our work is not finished. If we can detect these changes of blood vessels in the retina before any change in cognition, that would change the situation. "

The study was published in the journal Ophthalmology retina.

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