Eye scan could detect Alzheimer’s disease early

This finding was outlined by American and Australian dementia researchers at the recent Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) conference in Perth.

Retinal specialist and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke University Medical Center, Dr Eleonora Lad, stressed the importance of early detection and highlighted that there are few reliable methods to detect the early signs of dementia.

“It is becoming more evident that if we can treat dementia early, before symptoms occur and too much damage is caused, the progress of the condition can be stalled,” Dr Lad says.

“Because the retina is an extension of the brain, retinal changes may mirror the changes that occur in the brain with dementia. It has long been recognised that people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease experience abnormalities in vision, perception of colour, motion, and peripheral vision.”

Dr Lad and her colleagues have developed new image-analysis software that is able to associate eye layer thickness and other structural changes to the likelihood of a person to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

“The resolution of our eye imaging technology is 100 times that of a brain MRI scan, improving our ability to detect early changes caused by dementia. It can be performed more frequently and at a small fraction of the cost of a brain MRI scan, which can be in the thousands of dollars.”

“While our software is still a few years from becoming routinely available in a clinical setting, it has already been used in a number of large-scale clinical trials. It is possible that in the future an image could be analysed on the spot and any suspicious images would be referred to that persons GP for further consultation,” Dr Lad says.

Australian researcher, Dr Mojtaba Golzan from the School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University is also undertaking similar experimental research, which was also presented at the conference.

“Our preliminary research suggests changes in small blood vessels in the eye may correspond to similar changes to blood vessels in the brain, which are known to play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Our research may lead to a relatively low-cost and non-invasive approach to enable early detection of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr Golzan.

Alzheimer’s Australia CEO Carol Bennett says what was being presented at the conference was research that may help in less invasive, earlier detection of Alzheimer’s disease in the future.

“It is becoming quite evident that the way we detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia could be much simpler and quicker in as little as 10 years’ time. This would be a good development for the hundreds of thousands of Australians with dementia and their carers,” Ms Bennett says.