One of the many frustrations surrounding Alzheimer’s disease has been physicians’ inability to diagnose it. Often, the only way to be sure of its presence has been to autopsy a person’s brain after the patient has died.
Years ago, researchers at the University of Minnesota began looking at the retina, the thin layer of tissue lining the back of inside of the eyeball, to detect the illness. The retina is the most easily accessible part of the brain, the scientists reasoned, so maybe signs of Alzheimer’s could be detected there.
In mice, they found some correlation between the retina’s thickness and cognitive impairment, but progress in measuring and understanding the results adequately was slow.
Now Duke University team seems to have solved the problem.
By analyzing the way light scatters across the retina’s surface, the Duke group has found that the retinal layer is rougher and more disordered in Alzheimer’s sufferers, even in the disease’s very early stages.
The group is developing a simple eye test that could soon identify Alzheimer’s so treatment could begin earlier, halting and perhaps reversing the disease’s progress.
But researchers at the University of Southern California at San Diego may have found an even simpler diagnostic test.
They noticed when people take cognitive tests, the pupils of their eyes widen as they concentrate. In tests, they found that in people with cognitive impairment, the pupils widen more and faster than normal.
TRENDPOST: With improving diagnostic methods and protocols that not only slow the disease’s spread but also reverse it making their way to market, by 2030 Alzheimer’s, will be a diagnosable, manageable, and reversible illness.
