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Identifying the reduced blood capillaries in the retina may be a new, non-invasive way to diagnose early cognitive impairment – a harbinger of dementia. Discoveries using new technology are important because, although Alzheimer's disease can not be cured, early treatments can slow down its progress. It is known that people with Alzheimer's disease have a decrease in retinal blood flow and vessel density. But until now, it was not known if these changes were also present in people with early Alzheimer's disease or mild and forgetful cognitive impairment who pose a greater risk. high to become demented.
Scientists from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago have detected these vascular changes to the human eye in a non-invasive way, with an infrared camera and without the need for dye or costly MRI scans.
The back of the eye is optically accessible to a new type of technology (scanner angiography), able to quantify hair changes with unparalleled resolution, making the eye a mirror ideal for what is happening in the brain.
Professor Amani Fawzi, Professor of Ophthalmology, said: "Once our findings are validated, this approach could potentially provide an additional type of biomarker to identify individuals at high risk of becoming infected with the disease. d & # 39; Alzheimer's.
"These people could then be followed more closely and could be prime candidates for new therapies aimed at slowing the progression of the disease or preventing the onset of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. "
Future studies are planned to test the new simple technology in several clinics to validate the marker, as well as to find the best algorithm and combination of tests to detect high-risk subjects.
The study conducted by the Northwestern Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's disease involved 32 patients.
Their cognitive tests corresponded to the type of forgetful cognitive impairment, and their age, gender, and race were compared to subjects tested as cognitively normal for their age.
All underwent ocular imaging with OCT angiography.
The data was analyzed to determine if the vascular capillaries located at the back of the eye were different between the two groups of individuals.
The team now hopes to be able to correlate these findings with other types of more conventional but also more invasive Alzheimer's biomarkers, as well as to explore longitudinal changes in ocular parameters in these subjects.
Professor Fawzi added, "Ideally, the retinal results would be well correlated with other brain biomarkers.
"Long-term studies are also important to see if retinal capillaries will change more dramatically in those who decline and progressively develop Alzheimer's dementia."
The Alzheimer Society has announced that about 850,000 people would have dementia in the UK and that number will reach one million by 2025 as we live longer.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia and the risk increases with age. It is estimated that about one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six people over 80 years old.
But about one in 20 cases of Alzheimer's disease involves people aged 40 to 65 years old. This is what is called early or early Alzheimer's disease.
The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Although dementia is not cured, studies have shown how to reduce it, for example by eating this food every day.
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