Over recent years, the retina has established its position as one of the most promising biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
In a new study from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, researchers examined the roughness of the ten retinal layers and found that in some layers of the retina these measurements indicate that wrinkling begins at very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the study, the team developed computer programs allowing them to separate each layer of the retina.
They developed technology within the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) currently available on the market, using mathematical analysis to calculate the roughness of each retinal layer, and establishes the boundary between health/illness.
For patients, this is a simple, quick and low-cost test. The team says no prior preparation is required. They simply turn up for an ophthalmology appointment, sit facing the machine and spend about 4 seconds looking at a dot of light inside: that generates the OCT image.
The analysis of the roughness of the image is performed by a computer program in less than one minute.
After a decade working in this field, researchers understand how the eyesight of patients with Alzheimer’s evolves, and the changes in retinal thickness.
The team says with this new technique, they can research how to use retinal roughness to monitor and ascertain the stage of Alzheimer’s disease.
As well as being used in Alzheimer’s, the methods could be applied in studying other diseases, such as ALS or Parkinson’s.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about to reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease, avoid this food nutrient and findings of a new depression drug may help treat Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about Alzheimer’s and your health, please see recent studies about it may be possible to restore memory function in Alzheimer’s disease and results showing a new way to predict Alzheimer’s disease-like memory loss before it strikes.
The study is published in Scientific Reports. One author of the study is José Manuel Ramírez.
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