In a new study from the University of Otago, researchers found a simple eye test may make diagnosing the earliest stages of ‘diseases of old age’ possible when people are much younger.
Parts of our retina have previously been proposed as biomarkers for Alzheimer’s, and this study shows the retina’s potential to indicate cognitive change earlier in life.
Diseases of old age, such as Alzheimer’s, are usually diagnosed when people start forgetting things or acting out of character.
In the study, the team analyzed data from 865 participants. They focused on the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell layer (GCL) at age 45.
They found thicker RNFL and GCL in middle age were associated with better cognitive performance in childhood and adulthood.
Thinner RNFL was also linked to a greater decline in processing speed (the speed in which a person can understand and react to the information they receive) from childhood to adulthood.
These findings suggest that RNFL could be an indicator of overall brain health. This highlights the potential for optical scans to aid in the diagnosis of cognitive decline.
The team says these findings could result in AI being used to take a typical optical coherence tomography scan, done at an optometrist, and combine it with other health data to determine your likely risk for developing Alzheimer’s.
They hope that in the future, artificial intelligence will be able to take an image of a person’s retina and determine whether that person is at risk for Alzheimer’s long before they begin showing symptoms, and when there is a possibility of treatment to mitigate the symptoms.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about why some older people less likely to have Alzheimer’s disease, and daily habit that may help treat Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about common food that may reduce vascular disease in the brain, and results showing scientists find strong link between COVID and this brain disease.
The study is published in JAMA Ophthalmology and was conducted by Dr. Ashleigh Barrett-Young et al.
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