Noninvasive retinal imaging may improve early detection of Alzheimer's disease

Thursday, August 17, 2017 - 10:42 in Health & Medicine

Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents the leading cause of dementia worldwide. Currently, challenges in making an early and definitive diagnosis of AD limit opportunities to intervene with disease-modifying therapies before substantial neurodegeneration occurs. Neurodegeneration in AD has been attributed to the accumulation of amyloid-? proteins (A?) in the central nervous system, and A? may be present up to 20 years prior to the onset of cognitive symptoms. Recently, noninvasive imaging techniques have been developed that can accurately detect and monitor A? deposition in the retinas of rodent AD models. The use of similar techniques to assess A? accumulation in human retinas may enable significant advances in early detection and treatment of AD.

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